One Summer's Day
by Hebi-Kazechi-10
Summary: Emil and his family are moving to the countryside, much to his dismay. However, a wrong turn into a new world turns everything upside down. With the help of a man who works in the bathhouse of the spirits, Emil must find a way to break the spell on his family before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner. Hetalia adaptation of Spirited Away. T for language.
1. A Road to Somewhere

**I'll be perfectly honest, I've always wanted to write a Hetalia adaptation of Studio Ghibli movies. One of them being Spirited Away, which is, by far, my most favourite of the Studio Ghibli films.**

 **Anyway, I decided to act upon it, despite there beings several stories for me to continue on along with other things I want to complete, first, so please, bear with me. ^^'**

 **Still, hopefully I can continue writing - it's holidays for me right now, so I do have time. :D**

 **Either way, I hope you enjoy~**

* * *

" _ **Goodbye, Emil. Hope to see you soon, and good luck!**_

 _ **Yong Soo"**_

* * *

"Emil."

"Emil, we're almost there~!"

Raising the bouquet up a bit, a mop of silver-white hair was viewed lying on their back on the rear seats of the car. Narrowing the violet eyes on his bored face, the boy's eyes were raised to the ceiling off the car, somewhat unseeing. An Icelandic flag appeared to be draped around his figure like some sort of blanket.

"It really does look like the country out here. It's nice."

"We will have to do the shopping in the neighbouring town, however."

"I still think it looks nice."

The silver-haired youth disregarded all of the voices that were speaking close to him. He simply continued gazing up with the bouquet in his grip, and his legs resting on a box as the van continued driving on the even road in its slow pace from the traffic.

"Hey, Emil, look! There's the high school you're gonna go to!"

Turning his head to the side, white-haired, purple-eyed Emil saw his family at the front. At the wheel was a spiky-haired blonde with dark eyebrows and shining baby blues. He was the one who spoke and announced the presence of Emil's school. Beside him was a bespectacled man whose glasses magnified the intense gaze of his greenish-blue hues. Behind the pair were two more blondes – one with violet eyes, a gentle and warm face and wearing a white beret; the other looked more serious with a curl, and deep, sapphire orbs.

"Yeah, it doesn't look so bad!" the beret-wearing blonde piped up cheerfully.

Emil slowly rose from his spot to peek over the car's door and glance through the window. Noticing a bunch of kids pointing at his direction and whispering, he scrunched up his nose in an obviously disgruntled expression. He rolled his eyes, showing visible disgust, and even gave a small snort of disdain before sticking his tongue out at one kid who was _really_ staring at him. He then lay back down on his spot.

"I preferred my old school," Emil grumbled. "Mm…" However, glancing down at his bouquet, his eyes widened at the curling petals and drooping buds. "Huh?" he gasped before sitting up immediately, making the four older men to gaze at him in question, "My flowers are dying!"

"I told you not to smother them like that when we left," the sapphire-eyed blonde murmured. However, traces of a smile ghosted his usually serious face. "It was cute, though."

Emil snorted, "Shut up, Lukas."

"Don't worry!" the beret-wearing blonde beside Lukas smiled reassuringly. "We'll just cut off the stems and put them in a vase filled with water when we get to the new house."

Emil heaved an exasperated sigh, his own figure drooping like the flowers, "I finally get a bouquet as a present for the first time. And yet it's a good-bye present, too. Now, that's just depressing…" He retreated back to his spot at the back of the van as the beret-wearing blonde, named Tino, was able to grab hold of the card that was stuck into the bouquet.

"Didn't Lukas get you a bouquet for your birthday?" the glasses-clad man at the front passenger seat questioned in a low tone.

"It was just one flower," Emil responded as he chose to sit instead of lie down. "And one flower isn't a bouquet."

Here, Lukas reddened slightly at hearing that. Still, he spoke up, "I'll buy you a real bouquet filled with many flowers for your birthday."

Emil arched an eyebrow, "You will? Really, Lukas?"

"Big brother."

"What?"

Lukas then turned his head to face the younger boy, "Only if you call me _'big brother'_ , though."

Emil's face reddened before he snapped, "Never!" He then gave a huff and crossed his arms over his chest, looking really irritated this time.

Tino laughed before handing back the bouquet's good-bye card to the boy at the back. "Here, you can have your card back!"

"Hold onto it," the glasses-wearing man murmured. "I'm going to open the window. And you don't have to sulk that much, either."

"'Waldo's got a point, there," the spiky-headed blonde grinned from the driver's seat. "Come on! It's _fun_ to go on an adventure!"

This time, the van was able to scour through the onslaught of traffic as it ran down the road, past a myriad of houses, and up a ramp with a railing. A light breeze blew into the car, tousling Emil's hair a little as he gazed through the window, bored. The wind was a nice, cool touch on that warm summer day. He could see a great amount of trees to make what appeared to be a green forest on a mountainside. Once the van was up the ramp, it reached what appeared to be a dirt road as it climbed up the mountain's side.

However, the driver stopped upon noticing the road was now a dirt road.

"Why did you stop, Mathias?" questioned Berwald, the glasses wearing man.

Mathias, the spiky-headed driver, scratched his head, "Did I take a wrong turn?"

Berwald checked the map as well and shook his head, "This trail isn't on it, either…"

"Hold on," Tino piped up. The three other adults (that being Mathias, Berwald and Lukas) turned their heads in his direction, as he pointed. "There's our house over there! It's the blue one with the black roof at the end."

Peering up the mountain's side, the other three saw that indeed, there was a pale blue house with a black, tin roof that was right at the very end of a series of houses. There also appeared to be a fence around it – separating it from the forest it was really close to.

"Yes, that's our house," Berwald nodded, the corner of his lips appearing to twitch up into a smile.

"Looks like I just took a lower road…huh," Mathias rubbed the back of his head with a good-natured laugh. He then looked ahead of him in determination at the dirt trail, "Well, I'll take this way, then!"

"Seriously, don't," Lukas sighed in exasperation. "You always get us lost that way, you fool."

"Come on, Lukas!" the driver spoke up. "Have more faith in me!"

"It's not going to happen," Berwald this time spoke up. "We do always end up lost whenever you do that."

"Only just a little longer!"

Meanwhile, throughout all of that, Emil wasn't paying attention to the new house, or what his family was talking about. Instead, his eyes were fixated curiously upon a set of stones that were at the base of an old tree. Though some appeared to be toppled over or even crumbly, the cube-like bottoms and triangular prism tops looked unmistakeable to him.

"What's with those stones?" Emil questioned with interest. "They look like little houses."

"They're shrines," explained Tino gently, noticing the youngest of the group wasn't partaking in the argument on whether Mathias should drive ahead or not.

"Shrines?" echoed Emil.

Tino nodded, "Some people believe little spirits live there."

With the van driving on ahead, it was safe to assume that Mathias' obstinacy won the battle, and so, they continued on the dirt trail. Noticing that they were surrounded with nothing but trees and greenery, Emil couldn't help but this time feel a little nervous with the driver's choice.

"Mathias, I think we're lost," Emil spoke up, shuffling slightly in his spot.

"Nah, we're fine!" replied Mathias with a grin on his face. "This is a four-wheel drive! Just trust me on this one!"

"This is really a bad idea," Lukas agreed as he narrowed his eyes in the spiky-headed blonde's direction.

"Sit back down, Emil," Berwald spoke up, noticing that Emil was somewhat crouched standing behind them.

All of a sudden, as the van continued driving up the dirt trail, the path suddenly became rocky as it reached a stone path. They were gaining speed along the forest path, prompting the van to rock up and down from the stone's edges. Emil gave a yelp as he was knocked back into his spot. He sat there with widened, violet eyes as he held onto his bouquet tightly again. It was at that moment, when he looked to the side, he saw something in the shadows of the trees.

There stood a stone statue of what appeared to be a grinning, egg-shaped man.

The way it stared at him made him feel as if it really were looking him in the eye.

Emil blinked when he could've sworn he saw it move from its spot. At the very least, he was certain that that branch was _not_ there next to it as the van drove past.

The vehicle continued driving by, this time even bumping into what appeared to a little stream. There was a huge splash as the van zoomed past onto another stony forest path. Emil gave another loud yelp as he this time held on to van's interior as the bumping through branches and the stones grew rougher and rougher – shaking the vehicle's being.

"Mathias…!" Lukas spoke up in stern alarm as the van suddenly skidded, prompting Tino to give a high-pitched shriek.

This time, a bunch of branches were slamming against the van's front window. However, with how fast Mathias was going, the branches simply rustled with leaves and sticks scratching at the window's surface.

"Slow down, Mathias!" Tino exclaimed as he pressed himself back in his seat. "You're going to kill us!"

Berwald almost reached over to grab the wheel from its current driver before Mathias perked up. "What the hell is that?!" he gawked before slamming his foot on the brake.

The van came to an immediate stop.

The path wasn't so bumpy anymore – this time appearing smooth. A bright, red wall with pieces of paint peeling off from its side along with moss growing around it stood in weary pride with a huge entrance that appeared to be a dark tunnel. The red wall was connected to what appeared to be a building with very darkly tinted windows. There were only trees around a specific spot where the sun shone brilliantly down upon it, and there, in the middle of that spot, was a statue.

"What is this building?" questioned Lukas as he peeked his head out from the window.

"Dunno," Mathias however already unbuckled his seatbelt and was getting out of the van after shutting off the engine. "But it looks like an entrance of some kind!"

"Hey, Mathias get back to the van, we're going to be late!" exclaimed Tino, now sounding nervous. Hearing another light slam from a closing van door, Tino, Berwald and Lukas saw that Emil had left his bouquet on his spot and came out as well, now genuinely curious.

Seeing his little brother get out, Lukas immediately followed suit. Berwald sighed before unbuckling his own seatbelt along with Tino, who did so reluctantly.

Mathias meanwhile was standing at the very base of the entrance with a hand on his hip, and another feeling the wall of the building. He gave a smirk, "This building's not old, it's fake."

Emil blinked in confusion as he stood close by him, "How can you tell?"

"The wall's made of concrete, not brick," explained Mathias. "So therefore, it was made recently."

Emil this time looked forward and saw a void of black, with the only thing not part of it being what appeared to be an exit. He could feel the wind this time tickle his neck as it blew straight into the tunnel, lightly nudging some dead leaves inside. "The wind…" the Icelandic boy murmured. "It's pulling us in…" he couldn't help but feel a highly unpleasant shiver run down his spine.

Just staring ahead, and the wind blowing at his back made him feel as if the tunnel wanted to suck him inside.

"Why are we out here, anyway?" Lukas questioned, looking a bit irritated.

"Why don't we take a look around?" Mathias offered, a mischievous glint sparkling in his baby blues. "Maybe it'll lead us to the top where our house is!"

"You're kidding me, right?" Emil this time snapped his head in the spiky-headed blonde's direction. "No way!"

"Aww, you scared, Emil?" Mathias teased. He then laughed, "No need to be a scaredy-cat! It's just a tunnel! So, how about it?" he offered to the three other men. "Why don't we just take a look?"

"The movers won't wait for us to arrive," Berwald spoke up, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, they _can_ start without us," Tino surmised slowly. "I _did_ give them the keys to the house. So…they'll have enough to do." Admittedly, the beret-wearing blonde was highly curious, and even a little excited on where the tunnel was going to lead to.

"True," agreed Berwald, now crossing his arms. "But…"

"I said no!" Emil this time snapped, shoving his hands into the pockets of his brown jacket before heading to the van again. "Come on, guys. Let's just get out of here and go already!"

"There's nothing to be scared of, Emil!" Mathias laughed again, beckoning the younger male towards the group.

"I already told you, I'm not going!" Emil said sharply. However, his eyes slowly fixed onto the statue on his right. It definitely looked familiar, no it was unmistakable.

It was the same statue he peeked at when Mathias was driving down the path.

Only looking at it from the side, he realized that it was the same at the back.

The same, so that it appeared to have two faces – one where the face normally was, and one where the back of the head should be. The stone was covered with moss, and the mouth was open in a wide, gaping smile.

It was honestly really creepy.

"Just wait in the car, then, Emil," Berwald spoke up as he and the others started walking into the dark expanse of the tunnel.

Emil licked his lips, "But…" however, gazing at the statue again, he shook his head before giving a groan. He ran forward to catch up with his family. Lukas was waiting at the very rear of the group for his little brother. Once Emil caught up, he continued walking.

Soon, the light from the sunshine was gone, as the whole tunnel seemed to gulp them in its dark void. Emil couldn't help but feel a bit tense as he continued following the rest of the members in his family. Mathias was at the very front with Tino and Berwald behind him. Finally, Emil and Lukas were at the read.

"Everybody, watch your step!" Mathias spoke up.

Their footsteps echoing throughout the tunnel rang in Emil's ears. The silver-haired youth just watched ahead, making sure not to lose sight of his family.

However, soon, they found themselves exiting the dark tunnel.

The room it led them to, had a couple of stained glass windows, as well as chairs scattered around its old, cluttered expanse. Sprinkles of the sun's rays were scattering through the mosaic pieces softly. A small, dried-up fountain was at the very centre. There was also another opening out into the sunshine.

"What _is_ this place?" wondered Tino in awe as everyone else also looked around in wonder.

"Oh…!" Lukas then perked up slightly. He then cupped a hand around his ear, "Do you hear that?"

The room shook slightly as a loud whooshing sound rushed by, accompanied by a loud ringing sound, and the rattling of tracks.

"It's a train," Emil spoke up.

"Looks like the station isn't too far from here," Berwald remarked.

"Curiouser and curioser," Mathias chuckled. "Let's go check it out!"

On their way, though, Emil couldn't help but turn back one last time at where they had exited from. He was surprised to see that instead of one tunnel, there were three. He didn't say a word as they continued outside.

When they exited the building, Emil saw that the fields were green and grassy – hinting at a very healthy land. The blues skies that had fluffy white clouds also added further perfection to a picturesque scene. He noted a couple more rocks of those strange…things were still plopped around on what appeared to be a thin, narrow trail. "There are buildings here?" the purple-eyed boy questioned when he spotted what appeared to be houses at the top of a slight hill.

"Now, I understand!" Mathias spoke up, prompting everyone to turn to face him. "It's an abandoned theme park." The top of the building they exited from had what appeared to be a clock tower as well. "These babies were around a lot in the 90's or so."

Berwald nodded, "I have heard. Because of the sudden downfall in the economy, a lot of them became broke. This one is no exception, it seems."

Much to Emil's dismay, his family continued walking forward. "Where are you going?!" he cried. "You said that you were only having just a quick look! Now, let's go back!" Heaving a sigh, he took a deep breath before calling out, "Hey!"

Except his loud call was drowned out by not only the roaring of the wind that blew at his back again, but the building that loomed above. A great, grim groan rung from its being as grey clouds rolled in its direction, covering the sun.

Feeling more unpleasant shivers down his spine, along with this time a twisting knot in his stomach, Emil ran to his family again. "That building…" he breathed.

"What is it?" Lukas questioned, a little worried this time at his younger brother's reactions. Perhaps after they take a look around this second stretch, they can finally head back. His little brother certainly seemed on edge, though Lukas reasoned with himself that it was probably because of moving to a new place.

"It was moaning…" Emil whispered, shivering slightly.

"I'm sure it's just the wind," Lukas reassured, rubbing his younger brother's shoulder reassuringly. Emil quickly got out of Lukas' grip and just continued walking, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket again.

"Oh, this place is so pretty, though~!" Tino marvelled. "A really lovely landscape! We should've brought our food here so we could have a little picnic!"

Walking onward, they were met with a trail of large rocks and boulders that ran past some steps made of stone. There was also what appeared to be a shut-out lantern on a stone pillar.

"Looks like they wanted to make a river here," Berwald commented as Mathias easily jumped on the stones.

Mathias then stopped as he raised his head, he licked his lips as his nose caught the whiff of a delectable aroma. "Hey, guys…"

"What is it, Mathias?" questioned Tino.

"You smell that?" inquired the spiky-headed blonde.

When they gave sniffs as well, Tino nodded, "Oh, yes!" Lukas and Berwald also nodded in agreement.

"Smells good, doesn't it?" Mathias grinned.

"Yeah," agreed Tino. His stomach let loose a growl, to which he gave a sheepish chuckle before rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "And I'm really starving…"

"Perhaps this theme park is actually still in business?" inquired Berwald.

"Let's take a look, then!" said Mathias eagerly as he rushed forward.

"Come on, Emil," Lukas spoke up, shaking his head at Mathias' impatience. "Let's go before we lose this fool…"

"Wait a minute…" Emil groaned as he stretched his legs slightly to reach across another boulder. Still, he was able to catch up with his family yet again as he ran up the stone steps and followed them into what appeared to be a little town. One of the buildings had flowers that were engraved on the side, while another building that was next to it had what appeared to be some sort of balcony.

Emil noticed more weird looking buildings as they all followed Mathias' nose. One of the buildings was green with golden stars, planets and even a moon stuck on its walls, another looked like it could belong to Western movies, while one was the polar opposite – appearing to be from some ancient oriental film.

"It's coming from there!" Mathias called, pointing at a certain direction.

"Strange," Lukas murmured as he looked around with a slight quirk of one of his elegant eyebrows. "They're all restaurants…"

Emil looked around, too, and felt even more uncomfortable, "There's nobody here…"

Mathias meanwhile continued to run forward when he finally stopped at a building with red trimming. "Here it is!" he announced. Entering, he saw many huge plates of what food around him. He licked his lips and almost drooled when the smell came tenfold, making him famished.

"Wow!" Tino's violet eyes were sparkling upon catching sight of the food. He could see what appeared to be a fish's head on one plate, and another next to it with something that looked like chicken, but smaller. He immediately took a seat beside Mathias. Berwald sat on Tino's other side, while Lukas seated himself on Berwald's vacant side.

"Hello?!" Mathias called out in his booming voice. "There anyone in here?!"

"Emil, why don't you sit down?" Lukas offered as he patted the spot next to him. "It does look pretty amazing, doesn't it?"

Emil shook his head, clenching the insides of his jacket pockets tightly.

" _Anyone_?!" Mathias shouted out again.

The inside of the restaurant appeared empty with only a kitchen, off lights, and various pots, pans and other kitchen utensils neatly stacked around everywhere.

"Should we really be eating this?" Berwald questioned. "I don't think we should just eat other people's food…"

"We can just pay them when they come back," offered Tino.

"Good idea!" grinned Mathias. He then licked his lips, "Hey, that looks great~!"

"I wonder what _this_ is called?" inquired Tino as he took one of the pieces of meat from the plate in front of him. It had golden brown skin, and it had a crunching noise as the beret-wearing blonde took a bite out of it. He then gave a cry of mirth as he exclaimed, "Oh, it's delicious!"

Seeing that Tino seemed to really like the food, Berwald took a few plates and laid them in front of the other members of his family. He then took one himself and gave a tentative nibble. However, his greenish-blue hues widened before he started to devour it.

"You _have_ to try this!" Tino ushered. "It's so great!"

"I don't want any," Emil said stubbornly as he shook his head. Even if the food _did_ smell great, for some reason, there were alarm bells ringing in his head.

"Don't you think we'll get in trouble?" Lukas questioned.

"Precisely, let's just get out of here," Emil honestly felt that they were here too long for his liking.

"Don't worry about that!" Mathias guffawed as he got plates containing portions of more of the food around in the restaurant. "I got my card, and 'Waldo and Tino have their wallets, am I right?"

Berwald only nodded vigorously before accepting the plate Mathis pushed in his direction eagerly. He didn't at all say a word as he continued to gobble the food down. Tino also keenly took the plate Mathias offered him, scarfing down the food.

Now genuinely interested, seeing that the others didn't seem to be affected, and also feeling a little hungry himself, Lukas finally took a small bite. His sapphires eyes widened before he nodded, "It is, it's really great." He then turned in his little brother's direction, "Emil, there's nothing wrong with the food. Try it, it's so tender…"

Emil vigorously shook his head again.

"Mustard?" Berwald offered in Lukas' direction.

Lukas murmured his thanks as he, Tino, Berwald and Mathias continued eating. They were slurping, scarfing and devouring the food very hungrily as they seemed to just add more and more to their plates. Mathias and Tino were shoving food into their mouths with forks, while Berwald was also packing it in, though not as messily or sloppily. Lukas, being one who was more raised around etiquette, didn't wolf it down, however he was going at a really fast pace to compensate the amount that the others were putting in their faces.

One would've thought that they were dying from starvation from the speed rate and amount that they were all eating.

"Come on, already!" Emil groaned. "Seriously?"

They were even starting to make snorting sounds as they continued to eat.

Seeing that they weren't going to listen to him as usual, Emil's brows furrowed down to a scowl before deciding to explore on his own. He raised his head high as he walked down the clear path. True to Lukas' previous observation, every building appeared to be a restaurant, though some didn't have food displayed out like the one that his family was eating at.

Finally turning a corner, Emil saw a series of stone steps leading up to a red pillar that seemed to contain a paper lantern.

Looking up and past the red lantern however, Emil saw a rather large and extravagant looking building with a large pipe that exuded black smoke. The walls actually didn't appear to have peeling paint, and there was what appeared to be steaming water pouring from both sides over rocks in small falls. A wooden bridge with red railings connected between the two, rocky cliffsides.

"A bathhouse…?" Emil questioned to himself aloud. Still, he couldn't help but relax his shoulders at the thought of lying back and into warm waters to cool his now aching head.

Walking forward onto the bridge, Emil stood at one of the bridge's sides and crouched to his haunches to take a little bit of a closer peek. He wasn't afraid of heights, and he was personally curious to see what was at the bottom – perhaps a river?

Instead, there was rocky ground several kilometres below, and what appeared to be a tunnel and tracks. A sudden loud whistle boomed as a golden train with a maroon roof zoomed past on the tracks, slightly shaking the ground beneath its form.

"There's the train," remarked Emil. He ran to the other side of the bridge to watch it leave.

But when he raised his head, he realized he wasn't alone.

There on the bridge right close by was a man.

The man appeared to be of Asian origin, and he had short, dark hair that framed around his sharp face, along with a pair of piercing, slanting, golden eyes that seemed to bear right in his being. He was wearing a pale blue shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, brown trousers with the legs rolled to his knees, and a very worn pair of sandals. He also had a straw hat.

' _So it's not abandoned after all,'_ Emil thought in shock as he peered at the man.

The man meanwhile seemed to give a start at seeing him. His golden eyes widened as he took a step forward.

Emil stared back, unsure of what to say to the strange man. He couldn't help but remember his family eating at that one restaurant, and immediately felt embarrassed. However, before he could say a word, the man spoke.

"You shouldn't be here…" the man spoke in a deep and hoarse voice as he finally walked forward and close to Emil. "Get out of here, now!"

"W-what?" Emil stammered out, astonished at his words. He couldn't help but shuffle a bit away from the man in question.

"It's almost night," the man looked both outraged yet worried. "Leave!" he pointed in direction to where Emil came from. "Get out of here before it gets dark."

Too late, the sun was already setting, and suddenly, the lights were lit at one of the buildings. Emil was awed at seeing the lanterns light by themselves suddenly, but the strange Asian man didn't at all look as impressed.

Instead, he looked a bit panicked, "Damn it, they already lit the lights…go!" He then grabbed Emil's arm and pushed him in direction to the side of the bridge that Emil came from. "Go already! You _must_ cross the bridge! I'll distract them."

While Emil kept running until he was well past the bridge, the man stopped and turned around to face the direction of the bathhouse. He then took a deep breath and raised a hand with thumb and index finger were joined.

Giving another blow, soft lotus petals suddenly formed from where his breath had blown.

Emil however was at the bottom of the stairs by the time he stopped running from the Asian man's urging. He shook his head slightly, wondering if that man was a figment of his imagination from exhaustion due to moving, or if he really _was_ there. Regardless, his mannerisms was rather strange. "What was his problem?" the Icelandic boy questioned with a disgruntled expression before running in direction to where his family was.

All around him, the lanterns suddenly started to come alight as they glowed a bright yet ominous red.

* * *

 **[Characters]  
Emil - Iceland  
Lukas - Norway  
Tino - Finland  
Berwald - Sweden  
Mathias - Denmark  
**

 **For some reason, I could see Emil fitting the role of Chihiro/Sen. I think it's because of his personality dynamic where he looks _"cool and composed"_ on the outside, but is _"hot-blooded and passionate"_ on the inside. It's also revealed that he uses taciturn to look mature, but he's really childish. And Chihiro/Sen really matures by the time the movie is over, too. All I can say is that Iceland's definitely a potential character to write about, and I like it. ;D**

 **Who is the Asian man? Well, he'll be revealed in the next chapter. ;3**

 **Anyway, see you tomorrow, as the next chapter is already written up. :D**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	2. Nighttime Coming

**Hello~ back again with Chapter 2. =^^=**

 **Anyway, thank you so much to APHUnitedNations for the fave. :D**

 **Onward, march.**

* * *

While Emil kept running, he hadn't realized that there were shadowy forms already starting to take shape in the various buildings around him. He was more focused on trying to recall the steps he took from the restaurant his family was.

By the time he found the restaurant, he came forward. "Hey, guys!" Emil he called, recalling the strange Asian man's words.

Coming forward, he couldn't help but cringe at how a lot of the food seemed to be spilt, and there were some plates that were also empty and around the floor. It looked messy and disgusting in the silver-haired youth's opinion.

"Would you stop eating, already?" Emil sighed in exasperation as he placed a hand on Lukas' shoulder.

However, when Lukas turned his head around, Emil was met with a horrifying sight.

With the pink snout, large ears, and bulging cheeks, it was unmistakeable.

He was face-to-face with a pig.

A pig wearing his brother's clothes.

Emil felt his heart stop at that moment as all the hairs on his skin stood on end when he saw three more pigs – all wearing the clothes that his family was wearing that day. His jaw was dropped open – he wanted to scream, but no voice rang out: only shaky breaths of disbelief and terror. He was shaking all over, with his hands raised up in a vulnerable posture before he took quivering steps back.

When the pig in Lukas' clothes stood up on its hind trotters, there was a loud smacking sound as a shadow figure appeared from behind the steam. Its empty, white eyes glaring ahead. It took Emil a while to realize that the smacking sound came from what appeared to be a fly swatter.

And the shadowy figure smacked the pig across the face, causing the pig to give a loud squeal of pain before crashing on its side.

Emil finally found his voice and screamed in fright when pieces of food flew up. He immediately fled when the pig raised its voice again and gave its inhuman cry.

Running past the many restaurants, Emil saw that the area was no longer empty. There were shadowy figures of many different sizes moving around as if they were always there. The buildings were now lit up. "Lukas?!" Emil yelled out his brother's name. "Tino?! Mathias?! Berwald?!"

Sadly, as he turned this way and that, he was only met with the same glowing red lanterns, goggling white eyes, and shadowy figures. His heart beat faster as he continued looking around in frantic desperation as his blood turned cold, and sweat appeared at the sides of his head.

Everything looked so different, yet at the same time, similar.

He was frightened.

"Big brother?!" he cried desperately.

Nobody came.

He felt like a lost child who was searching desperately for their mother. Emil shrieked when one of those strange, shadowy creatures was walking in his direction. He almost tripped over his own feet, but luckily gained his balance before he ran through the streets, this time, remembering the tunnel.

Maybe his family left already? Maybe they thought he left to the van, and were there just waiting for him? Maybe this was just some sick joke where his family was really just okay and at the van?

Either way, the van was a much safer alternative than here.

When his furiously frantic steps finally led him back to the stone steps that led to the green fields, Emil ran forward to reach the tunnel.

His white boots disappeared under the surface with a loud splash.

"What the-?! _Water_?!" Emil cried in disbelieving shock. He exited before he could get any wetter. _'That…that's impossible!'_ he thought to himself. It was only a newly constructed path made of stone before – how could the water have come there so quickly?

Looking across to where the tunnel was, even the fields were submerged in water. Also, the once old and shabby looking building that he and his family had entered was glowing like a beacon with many lights. The clock was even working – ticking away.

"This…this can't be real…" Emil breathed, his heart thumping in his chest. "No…I'm dreaming!" The Icelandic boy screamed as he clutched at his head, almost as if he were to rip his hair out from the roots, "Come on, I have to wake up!" He sank to his knees as he buried his head in his knees. "Just a dream…" he murmured to himself, his eyes squeezed shut. "Just a dream…just a dream…go away…it's only a dream…disappear…just disappear…"

When feeling a light suddenly approach him, Emil opened his eyes and raised his head. His amethyst orbs almost popped out of their sockets when he gazed down at his hands.

Raising them to the light, he gasped, "My hands…I'm see-through…?!" He shook his head furiously, "No, it's just a dream…ahhh!" He gave a cry seeing that this time, it extended to his arms – he could see right through his arms and jacket. "I-it's just…a bad dream…!" he rubbed his arms at his sides.

Hearing a creak though, he looked up to see that the light that approached was what appeared to be a cruise liner. There was the sound of a drum giving a rather positive beat before the doors slid open. Out floated several white masks that suddenly formed into hulking figures.

Seeing more of the figures appear grotesque with horns, fangs and various physical forms that made his skin crawl, Emil gave another shriek before running again. This time, he ran up the side of a hill. He tripped over his own feet again, and this time, landed on his belly.

Still, that didn't stop him from running.

That was the only thing he could do right now.

 _Run_.

* * *

Rushing through the blades of grass as the sky turned dark, a man with golden eyes, dark hair and a straw hat was looking left and right with a serious expression etched on his face. He ignored the animated chatter that was in earshot as he glanced around the darker splotches of the area.

Finally spotting what he was looking for, he made his steps much calmer and more even as he went towards it.

Emil was crouched down in what appeared to be a very tight and tense ball. His head buried into his knees, his shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

Slowly, the golden-eyed man walked forward and carefully crouched down to the pale-haired boy's level. He then prudently raised his hands and placed them on the boy's shoulders.

Feeling something suddenly touch him, Emil snapped his head up, his amethyst orbs were filled with fright as shaky gasps of breath escaped his mouth. Before him, he saw the man from before, and immediately, his blood turned cold as he recalled him and his words from earlier: telling him to leave immediately.

He was just like them – he must be one of those creatures, too.

Why was he here? What was he going to do with him? Those sorts of questions were flooding Emil's mind, and he was frightened by all of the possibilities of what this man could and would do to him.

"Don't be frightened," the dark-haired man said calmly. "I am just here to help you."

"No…" Emil whimpered, shaking his head and trying to inch away from the man's hold. "No…no…!"

The man however simply reached into the breast pocket of pale blue shirt, and pulled out what appeared to be a small, peach sphere. "Open your mouth and eat this," the man's tone was not a suggestion, it was an order. Seeing Emil whimper even more and breathe more heavily, the golden-eyed man explained, "You have to eat something from this world, or else you'll disappear."

"No!" Emil cried as he threw his arms forward to push the man off of him. After seeing what had happened at the restaurant, there was no way that he was going to eat something.

However, not feeling something, the violet-eyed boy stopped upon realizing he felt nothing. Giving a gasp, he turned to see his arm and hand going straight through the man with him.

The man continued to look unfazed – his expression serious and composed. "Don't worry," he murmured as he carefully brought his hand forward with the strange, peach-coloured ball. "You won't turn into a pig." He then nudged it into Emil's mouth while his other hand was still on the boy's shoulder.

Emil was tempted to spit it out, however there was something…something about this man that he felt was different. After all, this man _did_ warn him, why would he come here to kill him now, when he could've just done it when he first saw him at the bridge? Also, the thing that he was eating…really wasn't that bad. It tasted a bit sour at first, however when his teeth got into it, something sweet oozed out and spread upon his tongue.

"Chew it, then swallow."

Emil followed the dark-haired man's prompting, and once he ate the morsel, he gave a sigh, his heart beating fast, and his hands wringing together.

"There, you're all better," the dark-haired Asian said in a more gentle tone. "See for yourself." He raised his hand up, showing a callous and rough looking surface.

After gazing at it for a little bit in contemplation, Emil hesitantly stretched his arm out. Feeling that the other man's hand was indeed as callous and as rough as it appeared from the brush of his soft fingers, Emil breathed, "I…I'm okay…"

The man nodded, the corners of his thin lips moved slightly forward to form a tiny smile. "You see?" seeing Emil nod slowly, the man then continued as he this time took hold of Emil's hand with both of his own. "Good," the dark-haired Asian said. "Now, follow me."

He stood up and was about to pull Emil with him, when Emil pulled back on his hand, "Wait, where is my big brother? My family?" He licked his lips as he this time grabbed the man's other hand so that he was holding both of them with both of his own, "They…they really didn't turn into pigs, did they?"

Relaxing his shoulders a bit, the man replied evenly, "This isn't the right time, nor the right place, but I promise you that you can see them again soon." His golden eyes darted to the side.

Suddenly, he snapped his head around as he gazed upward. He narrowed his eyes before giving a small grunt, "Don't move." He immediately came down and covered Emil with his whole body – the boy underneath his taller and larger figure while he spread his arms out onto the wall to make it look like he only needed a breather. Emil felt his face flush furiously at the man's sudden action, but held his breath when he looked up to where the man's eyes were, and saw something flying in the sky.

It appeared to be a bird, however looking more closely, it was some sort of strange creature.

It was rather round in appearance with little, feathery wings and beady, black eyes. It was lime green in colour, and its paws were outstretched as it glided along the grey clouds in the dark, night sky.

Once it circled around a few times, it finally flew away to a different route.

The Asian man grit his teeth, "That creature is looking for you. We don't have much time. Let's go now." He tried to help Emil to his feet, but when Emil tried to heave himself up, he found that he was stuck.

His legs wouldn't move. He wasn't sure if it was from exhaustion for running around so much, or whether it was because of the sheer supernatural forces of this place, but Emil was still very much scared. "My legs!" he cried. "What happened? I can't stand up!"

"Calm down," the man murmured. "Now, take a deep breath." When Emil softly closed his eyes and followed his order, he raised a palm and hovered it above Emil's leg, " _Nước chảy đá mòn_ _._ Unbind thee…"

Emil could only stare in amazement at the pale, blue glowing light that exuded from the man's hand as he felt his legs starting to regain their strength again.

"Now, get up," the man said more seriously this time.

Emil got to his feet, but before he could sigh in relief that he could stand again, he found himself getting pulled away by the man with him. "H-hey!" he gasped before suddenly realizing that they were going at quite a fast pace. He could feel the wind whistling past his entire being as they ran through alleyways that were only lit by a single light. Emil noticed that things looked more industrialized – quite akin to that of a factory. Looking forward, he saw a closed door.

However, the golden-eyed man raised a hand, and with a snap, the door was swung open.

And as soon as they were inside, the door closed by itself.

Walking quickly down a flight of wooden steps, they were running past a collection of huge jars that were settled upon stacks of hay, then into another room that had strings of what appeared to be fish either hung or stacked onto large piles. The stench was foul to say the least. Running again, the next room was a cooler room where strings of meat was strung up this time.

The last room that they were running through in the building was a pigpen.

Emil felt his blood ran cold as he looked around at the faces of the swine. They were all just eating out of their troughs. A few times he heard squealing, but otherwise, they weren't paying much attention to him.

When they exited, Emil shook his head upon realizing that his companion was talking to him – leading him towards the bathhouse where they first met. He noticed that this time, it appeared to be full of life where many creatures were crossing the bridge and going inside. "You need to hold your breath when crossing the bridge," he instructed. "They don't know of your presence, but even the tiniest breath on the bridge can break the spell." He calmly opened the gate and allowed Emil to go through before closing it. "And then everyone would see you."

Emil swallowed the lump that gathered in his throat – he couldn't help but press himself closer to the man with him. He held onto his arm as his heart beat rapidly in his chest. The bridge was quite long – what if he couldn't hold his breath for that duration? Then what would happen to him? What would happen to this man who was helping him?

"Are you afraid?" the man questioned.

Emil licked his lips, "Y-yeah…" he whispered with a small nod. He hated being in such a vulnerable position, but with the situation he was in, he can't be prideful now. Especially because his family was nowhere to be seen.

"It's okay to be so," the dark-haired Asian responded, still with the same serious expression on his face.

At the front of the bridge, there were what appeared to be two men, however something about them told Emil that they were _not_ human. Much like his companion. They were waving around lanterns and calling, "Welcome! Welcome!" along with other pleasantries. Still, Emil had the bad feeling that if they saw him, they wouldn't be as welcoming of him.

"I'm back from my mission," the golden-eyed man spoke up sternly.

"Ah, welcome back, Master Quan!" one of them said, appearing quite happy at the Asian's return.

' _Quan?'_ Emil couldn't help but feel the name was somehow familiar. However, he wasn't sure how. Considering everything that was happening now, and how fearful he was at being discovered, the frustration or even annoyance he would've felt upon trying to remember something wasn't showing up. Instead, he was trembling a little as he clutched tightly onto Quan's strong arm.

However, seeing as they walked past the two with no troubles, Quan was right – they really couldn't see him at all.

"Now, take a deep breath," instructed Quan calmly. Emil did so by inhaling a huge one through his mouth and nose. "Now, hold it." Emil immediately pinched his nose and mouth with his left hand just as they stepped onto the bridge.

"Welcome!" at the bridge's other side, there appeared to be women in dresses, gowns and robes who were eagerly welcoming the customers. They were smiling widely as they called, "It's nice to have you back! Welcome!"

There were more strange creatures that were walking on the bridge, however they didn't seem to mind or realize Emil was there.

There was one, though…

One who was sitting at the top railing of the bridge with a pair of crimson eyes, and pale hair. Either he seemed to notice Emil's presence, or he was staring at Quan, but his blood-soaked orbs fixated on them. And very slowly, a huge grin spread out on his pale face.

Emil just stood closer to Quan and held his arm more tightly. However, he could feel his lungs starting to twitch as they begged him of air. He tried to fight back by telling himself over and over again that he can't breathe on the bridge. Unsurprisingly, he was starting to struggle, and he made a little, weak noise.

Quan heard, and whispered, "Don't worry. We're almost there."

"Master Quan!" a loud voice eagerly called.

All of a sudden, what appeared to be a little grey alien was running forward. It was wearing a robe, had red, pupil-less eyes, and no mouth. Still a young sounding voice came from it. It stopped right in front of the two of them, and leapt up high into the air.

"How…are…you?" it asked in a keen tone.

Because of the sudden appearance and just how bizarre it was, Emil gasped, accidentally letting in a breath. However, he quickly tried to cover his nose and mouth again.

Sadly, the grey alien thing saw him. It stopped jumping and looked up with widened eyes, "Human…?" It leapt up again, this time appearing to go into a more fighting stance – appearing like it will leap onto Emil.

However, Quan raised his hand and threw what seemed to be some kind of bubble at the grey alien thing. It became suspended in the air in the bubble, as Quan cried, "Let's go!"

This time, he grabbed Emil's hand and no longer did he walk on his feet. Instead, the winds were rushing by even more in greater gusts, as his body was somewhat level along with Emil's. For a moment, the purple-eyed boy thought he was flying as he and Quan rushed past the girls that were welcoming at the front of the bathhouse.

Because of the huge bursts of wind that suddenly appeared when Quan started to fly with Emil, the girls' skirts, dresses and robes flew up, causing them to squeal, yelp and cry in surprise, horror and mixtures of the two.

Quan however, brought Emil to what appeared to be a little compartment where he quickly opened the door. He allowed the pale-haired human to enter first before himself, and shut the door as quickly as he opened it.

With a loud pop, the bubble that the grey alien thing was in burst, causing the creature to land on the ground on its rear. Shaking its head, it looked around in confusion.

Leading him to what appeared to be a small garden with a large tree that had blossoms on it, Quan led Emil to behind flowering bushes. Inside the building however, seemed to be utter chaos as there were people running around everywhere and yelling.

"Master Quan!"

"Master Quan, where are you?!"

"Master Quan!"

Quan gave a small sigh, "They know that you're here…"

Emil couldn't help but wilt, "I'm sorry…I took a breath…"

Quan however shook his head as he faced the boy, "No, Emil. You did great. Now, listen carefully. You can't stay here, for they'll find you, so I'll instruct you on what to do. I will create a diversion while you take that chance to escape."

"Y-you're leaving?" Emil's violet hues widened. He grabbed hold of the front of Quan's shirt as he pleaded softly, "Please, don't go. I don't want to be alone!"

Quan simply took hold of Emil's hands in his own and gently removed them from his shirt, "If you want to survive and save your family, then you have to do as I say."

"They…" Emil breathed, his voice a little shaky at seeing how serious Quan's expression was. "They really _did_ turn into pigs, didn't they? That wasn't a dream…"

Quan only gave a small, grim nod before raising a hand. Gently settling it onto Emil's forehead behind his pale bangs, there was a little glow of light. Emil could see the door behind them clearly in his head. Quan's voice was also resounding in his head, "When everything becomes quiet, go out through the back door." This time, Emil could see a really long set of stairs that were going down. "Take the stairs going down, until you finally reach the entrance to the boiler room." There was this time a vision of a green door at the bottom of the stairs before it swung open revealing various pipes. "There, you will find Chun-Yan, the woman in charge."

And with that, Quan took away his hand from Emil's forehead, and the vision dissipated.

"Chun-Yan?" Emil whispered the name.

"Tell her that you need to work," said Quan. "Even if she declines, you have to insist on getting work here. You'll be safe once you get a job. Otherwise, if you don't, then Arthur will turn you into an animal."

"Arthur…?" the name made Emil very wary.

"He's the wizard in charge of this bathhouse," explained Quan seriously. "Chun-Yan will try to force you to give up, or make you say you want to go home, but you just have to keep asking her for work. Even if you feel upset, just wait for a good moment to act upon. If you are able to get work, then even Arthur can't touch you."

Emil didn't respond. He could only feel his heart sink – honestly, it looked like things were really grim. He was going to be left alone in this strange world to encounter a strange woman who could eat him for all he knew. The only person he knew would help him was also going.

"Master Quan?!"

The voices continued shouting relentlessly.

Quan narrowed his eyes, looking tired himself before turning back to Emil, "I have to go now." However, giving a little, comforting squeeze on the pale-haired youth's hands, he added, "And do not forget, Emil. I am your friend; I am with you."

"Wait," Emil held onto his rough hands more tightly. "How do you know my name?"

This time, a pensive expression crossed onto the golden-eyed man's face. Instead of responding to Emil's question, he murmured, "As you have heard from before, my name is Quan."

Softly, he this time let go of Emil's hands. Realizing that he wasn't going to get a straight answer from him, Emil released his grip on the man's hands, too.

"Master Quan?! Master Quan!"

"Yes, yes, I'm coming," Quan's low voice was traced with slight irritation as he left Emil behind the bushes and came towards the building. "What is it?"

"Master Quan!" one of the voices called. "Arthur wants to see you."

"Yes, yes, I know," responded Quan stiffly as he left his sandals at the top step and entered the building. "It is to do with my mission, am I correct?" One of the people took his sandals and brought them inside as the door was shut.

Emil was now alone again.

For a moment, Emil just sat there on his haunches. He could feel his heart thumping so loudly and strongly in his chest that he was still surprised it was somehow not springing out from his ribcage. Burying his head in his knees, he took a deep breath to calm his extremely shaky nerves before he this time crawled on all fours so that he wouldn't be seen.

Quietly opening the back door, Emil slowly tiptoed by, and closed it shut. His palms were resting on the wall as he sidestepped towards the long flight of steps that Quan had shown in his head.

Gazing down, it looked even longer than before. The train running by with its booming whistle didn't help, either. And with the wind blowing at him in direction to the boiler room at the bottom, Emil felt nervous.

One wrong step, and he could just as easily break something or fall off the side of the steps.

Giving a gulp, Emil sat down on the ground, and started to swing his legs towards the first step. Next, he heaved his body so that his whole being was on it. He tried to repeat the process on the second step, but his foot slid off the edge, and so he slid a bit onto the fourth step instead, causing him to give a small yelp.

He immediately covered his mouth before he heaved his whole body onto the step, and taking a breath, feeling a bit rattled from it. Once he regained his breath, he slowly turned his whole body forward.

There were still a huge number of steps to go.

Bringing his left foot forward, he carefully felt the next step with it to see if it wouldn't give way like the second step did.

It seemed sturdy enough.

However, as he stood up and put his weight onto his right foot, the step suddenly collapsed with a bang, as Emil's body fell down a couple of steps with a loud scream. Just as quickly though, he was able to gain his footing and so he was suddenly running down the rest of the flight of stairs with a tremendous scream. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he even pushed at a wall to prevent him from hitting it as he continued running down the extremely long set of stairs. His eyes widened as he just continued running down.

He only stopped screaming when he crashed straight into a wall that was at the bottom where his destination was.

Trembling slightly and panting, his heart racing unceremoniously, Emil prayed that nobody heard him.

Hearing a window open, he could feel his skin crawl as he dared to look up.

There was one of those creatures – taking a drag from his cigarette before blowing clouds of smoke. He didn't seem to even notice Emil's presence or that he even screamed.

Counting himself lucky, Emil carefully left to the green door that would lead to the boiler room.

He quietly shut the door behind him when he was finally inside.

* * *

 **[Characters]  
** **Quan - Nyo!Vietnam**

 **Yes, Quan is Haku in this case. I can really see it as both are quite serious and mature, yet at the same time, there is a more softer core that is touched upon by someone else.**

 **Will it be romance? Well, I'll say it right now - it's open to interpretations.**

 **Anyway, next chapter will be up again tomorrow.**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	3. Sootballs

**As promised, here's the next chapter!**

* * *

The chatter instantly died when Emil entered the boiler room. There were a couple of metal pipes that were connected throughout the room. A few times, puffs of white smoke coughed out from exhausted parts. Despite how heated the place was, Emil couldn't help but shiver from anticipation.

Going through the door, he was in what appeared to be a small, wooden room with many cabinets stacked at the back neatly. There were little holes at the base where balls of soot were rolling out and in.

At least, at first it appeared that way.

Emil's eyes widened when he saw eyes on the little balls of black soot. They were moving on their own, making no noise as they were carrying coal back and forth. Following them with his gaze, the violet-eyed boy saw that they were carrying the coal to what appeared to be a metal incinerator. The incinerator however opened and closed in an even-paced interval – exposing raging hot flames that devoured the coal offered to it.

Looking around a bit more, Emil saw that besides himself and the soot balls that were working, there was another person there.

They were sitting on some sort of large, wooden podium where they were rolling a large, stone wheel with two hands.

Coming closer, though, Emil saw that it appeared to be a woman from the back.

A woman with three extra pairs of arms.

At first inwardly freaking out at the bizarre sight, Emil swallowed as he recalled Quan's words. _'This is probably Chun-Yan,'_ he thought to himself. After taking a deep breath, he came forward in slow, small and shy steps.

The woman was continuing to roll the stone wheel with one pair of arms, while another was picking what seemed to be herbs and pieces of straw. Another pulled on a lever, and what appeared to be some small, wooden panels that were dangling right above her head. Once she pulled them, they flew up, prompting her to adjust a hat that was on her head. The long sleeves of her clothes were rolled up again.

Suddenly, she rapped a wooden mallet on some stone three times.

The balls of soot immediately perked up and retreated back into the little holes along with the pieces of coal they were carrying. The ones that were close to the incinerator also quickly rushed back to the holes once they threw their coals into the incinerator.

Seeing that it was just the two of them now, Emil summoned the courage to finally speak up, "H-hello…?" He inwardly cursed at his stutter. Upon getting no response, he tried again, "Excuse me?"

The woman used a free pair from one of her many pairs of arms to pour herself what appeared to be a cup of tea. After sipping, she gave a sigh of relief before returning to her work.

Emil this time came closer. He spoke up again, this time in a louder voice, "Excuse me. Are you Chun-Yan?"

The woman stopped from her actions momentarily and this time craned her head around to face him. Emil was surprised at how youthful she looked – her face looked quite like a young girl. Her hair was auburn and tied into a pair of buns, her eyes a burnt sienna, and there were two plum blossoms also between her buns and the hat. After scraping some residue in what appeared to be some kind of compartment, she leaned slightly closer to take a better look onto Emil. Emil wasn't sure what she was thinking at all.

"Um…" Emil took another breath before he explained. "Quan sent me here. Please, can you let me work here?"

Giving a small hum in her throat, the youthful looking woman continued to stare at Emil for a good while until four of the wooden panels dropped behind her. Turning around, the woman's brown orbs widened before she shrieked; grabbing all of them, _"Ai ya_! _Four_ sub-bath tokens at once, aru?!" She started banging her mallet on what appeared to be a pot, "Alright! Get back to work, already, aru! This will be a long night!"

Emil jolted slightly upon the bell being struck.

"Yes, I am Chun-Yan," the woman responded bluntly. "Slave of the boiler who heats the baths." She turned her head and called again, "Get a move on already, aru!"

"Can you please give me a job?" Emil questioned, feeling much braver.

"I have all the help I need," answered Chun-Yan sharply. "As you probably saw, this place is full of soot, aru. Plenty of workers, and plenty of replacements if I need!"

Emil felt his shoulders slump upon the response, however, seeing the soot balls start to emerge from their holes (which the pale-haired boy assumed was their home), he moved a bit to get out of their way. He settled in a little corner close to where Chun-Yan was working.

One of the soot balls carrying a piece of coal gave a squeaking noise – looking up at Emil with an unimpressed expression.

Emil saw that his leg was in the way of its route, so he raised it up, "Oh, sorry about that…"

However, another soot ball bumped into it from behind, and the two started to squeak angrily at each other. Soon, more were arguing after bumping into each other more.

"Hey…! Wait a second," Emil spoke up. He regained his balance before leaping over them and onto a little space at the side at the back of the room. He watched quietly, wondering how to convince Chun-Yan to get him to give him a job and have him stay. His heart sank as he remember Quan's words on how the person in charge, a wizard named Arthur, would most likely turn him into an animal if he didn't have a job.

How would he be able to save his family then?

"Out of the way," Chun-Yan said stiffly, motioning Emil to move. One of her six arms suddenly stretched out at an extremely long length to the back of the room where the cabinets were.

Emil side-stepped and stared in awe at how long Chun-Yan's arm stretched. First, it grabbed what appeared to be straw in the cabinet behind him, then it stretched up and to the left where it got appeared to be herbs. He watched her take it back to her spot where she then pulled on the four panel pieces, which led them to shoot back up.

Still unsure on what to do, Emil chose to sit down and try to wrack his brain for an idea.

That was when one of the soot balls walked out with a particular large piece of coal.

With its leg bending shakily, it suddenly got flattened underneath the huge piece of coal.

It gave muffled squeaks as it started to flail around from underneath the piece of coal. Obviously, it was too big and heavy for the poor thing to carry.

Emil perked up upon the sight, and quickly bent down to pick up the piece of coal to help and free the poor soot ball. He gave a little gasp upon realizing how heavy the coal actually was – it was very solid, and he wasn't the strongest person in the world, either. In fact, he was quite thin. However, he was able to lift it up.

The other balls of soot stopped from their actions and watched.

When Emil lifted the piece of coal up, with a little pop, the soot ball, though appearing dizzy, seemed fine. Then after shaking its head (entire body?), it rushed back into the hole. "Hey, wait," Emil called after it. "What should I do with this?" Looking at the other balls of soot, the pale-haired human saw that they just slowly resumed with their line of work. "Do I just leave it here?" he asked.

"Finish what you started, human!" Chun-Yan's voice cut in sharply.

Gazing down at the large piece of coal in his hands, after a silent contemplation, Emil gave a nod as a burst of determination shot through his entire being. It fuelled some sudden strength to bloom from within him, and with that, he started to walk with the coal towards the incinerator. Noticing his presence, the balls of soot immediately moved out of the way to let him go, first. Once he was forward, they followed in his direction – observing him closely and curiously.

The few soot balls that were at the incinerator quickly threw their pieces of coal into the incinerator once the shutter opened before they fled. Emil watched closely, feeling his heart race.

Soon, it was just him and the incinerator.

It opened and closed – revealing a mouth that was breathing fire: eager to eat more pieces of coal to fuel its strength. It was eagerly waiting to be fed, as little sparks of flames flickered a few times from its jaws.

Glaring at the incinerator, Emil shuffled closer to the mouth. His heart continued to beat faster and faster before he finally chucked the large piece of coal when the incinerator opened its mouth wide again.

He ran far away when he felt sparks tickle at his pale skin; going close to Chun-Yan's podium. Panting and gasping for air to calm himself, he sighed in relief once it was over. Well, doing that action could probably help him get a job and prove he can work hard. Though it was, admittedly, frightening and he was rather unnerved from it, he was certain that with time, he could do it eventually.

The balls of soot meanwhile all gazed up at Emil closely. They weren't continuing their work. They were just staring.

Suddenly, one of the soot balls let go of its hold on the piece of coal it was carrying, so that the coal landed right on top of it. It began squeaking in purposefully loud protest as it started wriggling around from underneath it.

"Huh?" Emil looked down in confusion at what the soot had just done.

Before he knew it, more of the balls of soot followed suit – they released their hold on their pieces of coal. Letting the coal drop on top of them as they started wriggling and squeaking around. Noticeably, they all started to crowd closer around Emil's feet – wanting him to continue working, and take their pieces of coal to the incinerator for them instead.

This action didn't go unnoticed by Chun-Yan.

She banged her mallet on the pot again. "Hey, you lot!" she called. "Do you want to turn back into soot, aru?! And you…" she jabbed her mallet in Emil's direction, prompting the violet-eyed boy to take a step back. "Back off! You can't just come in here and take someone else's job. If they don't work, then the spell over them wears off and they turn back into soot. There is no place here for you, you got it?! Try somewhere else, aru!"

Chun-Yan's words seemed to really tick off the soot balls, for they suddenly lifted up their pieces of coal, and their eyes looked enraged. They were shrieking and squeaking angrily as they started to gather closer to Emil. They started to stack up on top of each other to go at eye level with the woman in charge. Emil just stared awkwardly.

"Have you soot balls got a problem, aru?!" Chun-Yan this time looked angry at the rebelling balls of black fluff. "Now, get back to _work_!"

"Oi, chow time!" a new voice suddenly called.

Emil saw that a small, wooden compartment slid open as another person slipped through.

This new person appeared to be a man. He had dark brown hair and an olive complexion. His eyes were hazel in colour. Quite noticeably, there was a long, wild curl that was sticking out from the right side of his head. He was wearing what appeared to be a large, white shirt, white baggy shorts, a blue apron around his lower waist, and going barefoot. He was also carrying what seemed like a basket.

"Where's your bowl from yesterday?" the man with the curl spoke in a noticeable Italian accent. Noticeably, Chun-Yan looked more eager with the man's intrusion. She got a white china bowl and handed it over to the man. The curl-headed man chuckled, "I keep telling you to just leave it outside, _signora_ Chun-Yan."

"Okay! Time for a break, aru!" Chun-Yan pulled on another lever and started to eat what appeared to be rice.

The balls of soot immediately popped up from where they were and keenly rushed to a spot where the hazel-eyed man was crouching near. Emil noticed that they all left their pieces of coal behind.

The man with the curl opened the basket and started to throw what appeared to be little pieces of candy. The soot balls were running around in delight as they began taking as many of the pieces of candy as they could. The man continued throwing pieces of candy for a good while before he finally noticed Emil.

And when he did, he gave a huge gasp.

Emil, in return, felt his whole body tense up as he gave a gasp himself.

"Chigi! You're that fucking human!" the man sprung to his feet as he jabbed an accusing finger in Emil's direction. "You're in trouble! You're the bastard that everyone's looking for!"

After munching on her food a bit, Chun-Yan then spoke up, "He's my grandson, aru."

"You're kidding me, _grandson_?" the Italian sounding man questioned in disbelief.

Emil looked up with widened eyes – he didn't expect Chun-Yan to say that, seeing as she was rather against him at first. However, the woman had a more pleasant expression on her face as she ate her meal with her chopsticks.

"He says he wants to work here," Chun-Yan explained as she turned to face the two males. "But I have all the workers I need, aru. Would you go and take him to Arthur, Lovino? Despite his appearance, he's a tough, little boy. I'm sure he can handle it just fine."

"No way!" Lovino snapped as he this time up-ended the basket so that all the candy tumbled out and onto the soot balls who were eagerly squeaking in delight as they zoomed around to grab some more. "There's no way in hell I'm risking _my_ life!"

Suddenly, one of Chun-Yan's arms stretched out holding what appeared to be a stiff newt that was baked. It noticeably was painted with some kind of seasoning and sauce. "What if I give you this roasted newt, aru? Hmm? Hmm?" offered Chun-Yan. "It's coated with tomato salsa, you know."

Lovino's expression was stiff at first, however he started to flush as he narrowed his hazel eyes. Noticeably, they were fixated on the newt in Chun-Yan's hand with interest.

"If you want to work," Chun-Yan turned her head to face Emil. Her expression was much calmer, and the Icelandic boy swore that he could detect a spark of interest and amusement in her brown eyes. "Then you have to make a deal with Arthur. He's the one in charge of here, aru."

"Give me that," Lovino said sharply as he grabbed the newt from Chun-Yan. He huffed in Emil's direction, placing a hand on his sharp hip. "Come on, you little bastard, you're coming with me."

Emil shuffled a little bit as he tried to get out from his spot where all the coat the soot balls had dropped surrounded his legs. After squirming around a bit, he was able to step over a few pieces of coal. Still, he almost tripped over one when it slipped under his foot. Luckily, he regained his balance quite quickly, and ran forward towards Lovino.

"Can't you even manage a freaking _'yes, sir'_ or a _'thank you'_ at least?" questioned Lovino, voice still sharp and unfriendly. His hazel eyes glared at the human boy.

"Yes, sir," Emil quickly responded. He didn't want to be on the Italian's bad side. Especially since he probably wasn't human, either.

Lovino however gave an exasperated sigh. "Chigi, you sure are fucking slow," he heaved before heading towards the compartment that led to outside the boiler room. "Just hurry it up…"

"Yes, sir," Emil was about to heave himself up and follow Lovino, when the spirit with the curl cut in sharply.

"You don't need those boots or your socks," Lovino interjected, wrinkling his nose down at Emil's white boots. "Just leave 'em. And that jacket, too. It's too hot to wear one, anyway…"

"Yes, sir," Emil unlaced his boots and removed them first. He rolled his socks off and placed them inside his boots. He also discarded his brown jacket, and neatly folded it before placing his boots, with the socks inside of them, on top of them. He then carefully took the pieces of clothing, and placed them onto the ground where the soot balls moved out of the way to give space. They stared curiously at the boy's boots and jacket. They chattered among themselves with great interest as they continued inspecting the white boots and their laces along with the brown jacket.

Before Emil was about to exit through the compartment, he was stopped by Lovino, who looked even more irritated.

"Thank _signora_ Chun-Yan, you dumbass!" Lovino snapped in a noticeably more hushed tone. Considering the current situation they were in where Emil was pretty much a smuggled stowaway who everyone else seemed to be out for, it's not that hard to believe. "You know she's _really_ sticking her neck out for you!"

"Ow!" Emil turned around quickly to thank Chun-Yan, however due to the compartment being quite small where you had to crouch in order to get through, he bumped his head on the top eave. He was glad he just didn't hit his head _too_ hard.

Lovino looked sharply at him again before standing guard on the other side.

After rubbing his head, Emil got onto his knees and lowered himself – bowing down to her. He truly was grateful that Chun-Yan didn't give him in – she wasn't as bad as he initially thought. "Thank you, Ms Chun-Yan," he said sincerely, touching his aching head to the ground.

Chun-Yan scarfed down more of her food before raising her eyes onto Emil's lowered boy. A small smile spread out on her face as she raised one of her hands; giving a thumbs-up, "Good luck, aru."

Emil gave a sigh of relief as he exited and followed Lovino, who grumbled, "We have to get to the top floor. That's where the brow bastard— I mean, Arthur lives."

The violet-eyed boy wondered what the curl-headed spirit meant by _"brow bastard"_ but decided not to question about it. Instead, he kept quiet and followed Lovino closely. They got onto a little elevator that got up. Emil noticed that the walls were made of concrete, much like how Mathias had pointed out when they first stopped at the tunnel previously.

"You wanna lose your nose?" Lovino asked, totally deadpan.

Emil immediately scooted away from the wall.

At the top of the elevator, Lovino looked around and waved at some female spirits. However, he made sure to stand straighter so that Emil was not in view. When the coast was clear, he moved forward with Emil following close behind. Emil saw that it appeared to be some kind of storage facility. Taking another elevator, he realized that there was what appeared to be some kind of wooden panels.

Gazing closely, Emil saw that there was immediately light pouring in, and he couldn't help but feel a bit hot. Even though he discarded his jacket, he was still wearing a white, long-sleeved dress shirt. He undid the ribbon tie so that the top of his shirt opened slightly.

Still, the steam from the hot baths and springs _did_ feel quite soothing.

Lovino simply arched an eyebrow at the human he had to mind.

At the top of the elevator, though, there was what appeared to be a woman, though by now, Emil knew that everyone he'd meet would be a spirit. She stood at an extremely tall height that could probably rival Berwald's. Her hair was very pale, straight and long – flowing down like a pale sheet. Glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose, her lips were rose red, and there was a flat hat upon her head. She appeared to be wearing a long, flowing navy blue dress with lavender lace trimming at the bottom, and a coat that matched the dress. She was also holding what appeared to be a black cane with a golden top.

Her face was calm and serious, but her eyes were very intense and projected a sort of frost that made Emil shiver.

Her gaze seemed even more intense than Berwald's.

"A-ah! _Signora_ Kristine!" Lovino suddenly straightened his posture, looking quite shocked yet flustered at seeing the woman.

The woman gave a small grunt with a little nod of her head before tilting her head slightly to the right. She then raised a hand and pointed up with her index finger.

"Sorry, _signora_ , this elevator doesn't go any further up," Lovino's demeanour, Emil noticed, seemed to soften and become much kinder and gentler around females. "You'll have to get another elevator. Sorry about that!"

The woman, Ms Kristine, narrowed her eyes slightly before closing them serenely.

Regardless, Lovino continued to move, prompting Emil to follow him.

However this time, much to Emil's alarm, she was slowly following them in calm, even steps.

"H-hey…" Emil whispered, coming much closer to Lovino. "She's following us…"

"Just don't look at her," was Lovino's sharp response. His attitude was definitely different compared to males and females, from what Emil could see. Though he also thought that it could be a different of attitude between humans and spirits.

They continued walking on through the bathhouse, Emil was still surprised and amazed that he wasn't discovered by any other spirits. Though with Ms Kristine's tall figure, he felt that perhaps the sight of him was blocked by her.

"Right this way, gentlemen~!" when they reached the elevator, one of the male spirits exited with a group of other spirits who had very large tusks for bottom fangs, and messy, green manes. "Your bath is right here~!" Suddenly, he stopped and gave a sniff, "Huh? Hmm…Lovino?"

" _What_?!" Lovino snarled, shoving Emil into the elevator quickly. Emil gave a little yelp, but quickly covered his mouth.

Ms Kristine immediately boarded the red elevator and turned around in a proper posture with both hands on her cane. Her eyes were softly shut, face in quiet contemplation. She also stood in front of Emil, hiding his figure from view yet again.

"What is that smell?" the male spirit approached Lovino and sniffed again. He then gasped, "It's human! You smell just like a human, Lovino!"

"Is that so, bastard?" Lovino's voice was dripping with sarcasm along with an edgy tone.

"Where's it coming from, Lovino?" the spirit inquired. "Come on. You're hiding something, aren't you? Well, then? Show it to me."

Lovino heaved an exasperated sigh before reaching into his shirt. He then pulled out the roasted newt that Chun-Yan had given him earlier in return for helping Emil. "This what your stupid nose smells?" he asked, unamused.

Suddenly, the male spirit was salivating from the mouth. "Is that…tomato salsa-covered roasted newt?!" he gawked. He tried to grab it, but Lovino raised his arm high in the air.

"Pffft-! No way, dipshit!" Lovino gave a smirk. "I'm saving every last bite for myself!"

"Please, just give me a little!" the other spirit begged, looking desperate. "Just a leg!" He started to jump up in an attempt to grab hold of the delicacy that Lovino was now raising higher up in the air. "Just a leg!"

"You wanna go up, just pull the red lever on your right," Lovino said nonchalantly over his shoulder.

Ms Kristine gave a little grunt, however she shuffled slightly to the left to allow Emil to come forward. Not wanting to risk being seen by the other spirit that was just nearby, he stretched his arm out. He was able to pull the red lever down, causing the elevator's doors to close and for it to travel up.

"Let me just suck on the tail, please!" the male spirit meanwhile was trying desperately to grab Lovino's treat.

However, Lovino responded by shoving the whole thing into his mouth. He gave a snicker at the other spirit's crushed look, savouring the spicy and tangy flavour of the tomato salsa on the roasted newt's skin. "Mmm~"

Meanwhile, while the elevator flew up, Emil was silent along with his suddenly new companion. The silver-haired youth shuffled awkwardly in his spot beside the female spirit with the cane. Very carefully, his amethyst hues darted up to the side to take a peek at her. He had to admit, though she wasn't human, she was very beautiful – a sort of inhumane beauty. It was cold, yet also cool.

Ms Kristine however narrowed her eyes before darting them to the side in Emil's direction. She seemed to warn him with that look.

Remembering Lovino's words of not to look at her, Emil immediately tore his gaze away and looked to the front. He couldn't help but the heat spread on his cheeks for being found out, though.

The elevator suddenly stopped, revealing a series of rooms that were dimly lit. Emil could make out shadows through the paper screens, along with chuckling and giggling as well as pleasant chatter. This probably was Ms Kristine's stop.

However, she reached over and pulled the red lever, prompting the elevator's doors to close, and for it to continue up.

After a little more time, the elevator stopped again, this time showing a sort of corridor with tiled floors, and a chandelier dangling down from the ceiling. Seeing that this was the top floor from the buttons on the left, Emil quietly exited the elevator. He turned around and saw Ms Kristine lower her head as she bowed it down in acknowledgement. He returned it by bowing his own figure down to show her respect and gratitude for also not revealing his presence and even hiding his being from the view of others.

Not all spirits seemed to be bad from what he could see.

The elevator's doors closed before it went back down again.

* * *

 **[Characters]  
Chun-Yan - Nyo!China  
Lovino - Romano  
Ms Kristine - Nyo!Sweden**

 **And the next chapter will be the day after tomorrow. I'm eager to write it, though - because there we finally get to see the one and only wizard in charge of the bathhouse! 8D**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	4. Arthur

**Hey there! As promised, here's the next chapter.**

 **A HUGE thanks to Canadian Cowboy for the review! =^^=**

[Canadian Cowboy: **Thank you so much for your review! :D it's reviews like yours where you assess things constructively that get me extremely excited and tinkled pink. =^^=** **I'm quite a fan of Studio Ghibli, and I wish to someday write Hetalia adaptations of other movies. If there's something I try to make sure in my stories, is to make the characters as in-character as possible. You pretty much described how I wanted and hoped he'd come across as - a bored and seemingly uninterested teenager who is actually pretty emotional. I actually never thought of that before with Iceland being an isolated country , but that's a pretty good observation! :D I really just chose Emil because I felt that he had the right personality to fit as Chihiro/Sen, being placed in a setting that's far out of their comfort zone, and eventually maturing in the end. To be perfectly honest, I expected someone to say that Hong Kong would fit as Haku more than Nyo!Vietnam, but I have three reasons why I chose Nyo!Vietnam besides wanting lesser known characters to take the spotlight for once (because Hong Kong himself kind of is lesser known compared to other nations, too).**

1\. Haku actually did go to Yubaba for work first. Though he does go under her control via the black slug, Kamaji recalled to Chihiro/Sen how Haku appeared out of nowhere (much like her) and after a while, Haku told Kamaji he wanted to work for Yubaba. Kamaji told Haku not to as it's dangerous and to go home, but Haku responded he had no home to return to, hence why he stayed to work for Yubaba. Hong Kong, though was previously under England's rule, was forcefully taken from China. Haku did have free will and could've just continued roaming the land, but instead, chose to work under Yubaba first.

2\. Personality-wise, I felt that Nyo!Vietnam fit Haku's character more (or, at the very least, my portrayal of him since Nyo!Vietnam has no canon personality). Though both Hong Kong and Nyo!Vietnam have serious expressions and are rather sturdy individuals, Hong Kong is also mischievous and a bit of a prankster, which doesn't fit with Haku who's more serious all-in-all. Nyo!Vietnam meanwhile, I perceive, as being more responsible and mature despite the cold surface, which does fit with Haku's personality more. Plus, admittedly - I find it harder to write Hong Kong as Haku, as he can't really be Hong Kong if that trickster side of him isn't present.

3\. I don't want the story to be identified as a HongIce story, nor do I want people to think of HongIce while reading it. Not because I hate the couple (as petty as that sounds), but because Spirited Away is best known for being a timeless, classic tale about a child growing up despite their current situation, and trying to survive in the strange world they're now in. Though some can debate about the "love" scene that happens in Spirited Away (and I do like Chihiro/Sen and Haku together), I perceive that scene as a more innocent love as plain as just someone caring immensely about someone else (like best friends, siblings, family members or even soul mates), since Kamaji described it as "pure love" (at least in the English dub, he does). Also, I do feel a romance can kind of take away from the story, and Spirited Away was most certainly not known for being a romantic movie.

 **All in all, I hope to continue delivering, and again, thank you so much for your awesome review! :D quite eager for the next one. =^^=** ]

 **Anyway, here is the next chapter.**

* * *

Once the elevator disappeared, Emil started to make his way down the corridor.

Despite the fact that it was a summer's night, he couldn't help but shiver on the strange floor. There was something about it that made unpleasant tremors crawl down his spine. Looking around a bit more, he saw that there were rather extravagant looking vases with lovely displays of roses. There was also what appeared to be lions engraved and carved around the room.

Before him was a red door with golden knobs.

Taking another step forward, he peered down at what appeared to be a knocker that seemed to be in the shape of a lion's head. Its jaws were wide open, and that's where the ring was for knocking. Its eyes were glaring, and its ears appeared to be flattened along its mighty mane.

Emil reached towards the doorknob and only pulled it a little.

A snarling voice cut in so sharply, he jumped, "Don't you have any manners? Aren't you even going to knock?!"

Emil only gazed down at the golden knocker with widened, violet eyes.

The knocker's eyes rolled a full revolution due to being made of metal. It then snorted, "You're the most pathetic little boy I've ever seen!"

Emil could only scowl lightly at being insulted before the knocker moved by itself – causing a loud rap to resound throughout the corridor.

The red doors swung open, along with many doors revealed to be inside. There appeared to be many more rooms inside as Emil could spot what appeared to be white tiles with one room, and silk curtains in another. The chandeliers at the top of each ceiling illuminated themselves to reveal a set path created by a red carpet that led deeper into the strange floor.

* * *

" _ **Well, come in."**_

* * *

Emil looked around cautiously, wondering if it was safe to come inside such a strange-looking room. It looked like one of those pictures where there the cycle repeated – a droste effect.

After peeking inside a couple more times and trying to settle his racing heart, the pale-haired youth tentatively took a step forward.

* * *

" _ **I said**_ **come** **_in_."**

* * *

A sudden force grabbed onto the front of Emil's white dress shirt, mercilessly pulling him straight inside the room. He gave a startled yelp when it happened as he found himself flying through the many rooms. Straight after, the doors shut and locked themselves with a booming bang.

He could only take quick glimpses whenever his eyes darted to the side to see where his surroundings were. Going through the last door, there was what appeared to be a hallway with many pillars. However, the force pulled him to the right into another hallway where there were more doors, causing Emil to give a surprised grunt as he continued to fly through the setting.

The unnatural force that was pulling him wasn't unwavering as it continued to pull.

Finally, it stopped and released him altogether; causing him to fly through a green door. Giving another squeak of surprise, he rolled forward before landing in a heap on his front. The heat from the fireplace at his right was glowing vividly. "Ow…" he groaned, rubbing at his head. It was aching worse than before.

Hearing a small chuckle, though, he stopped and looked to the source.

Feeling something flit past him, Emil whipped his head around. When something else darted by, he looked in direction to where it was, too. Hearing a little chuckle, he felt another thing zipped by, only this time, it had taken hold of his ribbon tie. "H-hey!" he called out. There was another little chuckle as he felt something pull at some of his bangs. He grunted as he swatted at what appeared to be little, glowing lights. There were three of them, and they were poking, prodding and pulling at his hair and ribbon tie. When he squinted his eyes slightly to take a better look, they appeared to be little fairies with fluttering wings.

There was something about their giggling though, that made his blood run cold.

"Quiet down," a disgruntled voice spoke in an English accent. "You're making a racket."

Emil looked up to see that there was a man sitting on an oaken desk writing with an expensive looking pen. But feeling the small fairies continue to mess around with him, Emil continued to try swatting them away before they felt satisfied.

Once they flew away and settled elsewhere, watching the scene eagerly unfold before them from their spot, Emil wondered if this was Arthur. The wizard who owned the bathhouse that he was warned of many times.

Taking a closer look, Arthur appeared to be a slender man with short and messy golden blonde hair, lime-green eyes, and wearing a sweater vest. Quite noticeably, he had a pair of prominent and bushy eyebrows that really stood out on his face. Remembering Lovino's choice of words on Arthur before, it really did fit. The blonde however didn't seem to care for his presence.

The only sound that echoed throughout the whole room was the crackling flickers from the fireplace along with the scratching of the pen's tip.

"Excuse me…" Emil's voice was soft. However, after calming down his nerves a bit, he straightened his posture slightly, while his hands were at his front. "I was wondering if you could give me a job," he said, voice much stronger and more determined.

Arthur continued to write. Momentarily, his emerald orbs shot up to look at him, however with a lazy movement of his hand. His middle and index fingers along with the thumb were touching as his hand glided horizontally.

Upon that movement, Emil felt his mouth suddenly close. His lips seemed to have stuck together – as if his mouth had become a zipper that was closed up. Emil tried to speak, however only muffled protests came. He abruptly reached up to touch at his lips, however his mouth wouldn't open: his lips wouldn't part.

Arthur chuckled in amusement at the sight, "Ha. I don't want to hear such a stupid request." He went back to his writing, "You're just a useless, little weakling." Grabbing a small pouch, he placed it into a small treasure box at his left with a velvet interior, "And this is certainly no place for a human." Closing the lid of the treasure box, he continued, "This is a bathhouse where all the spirits come to sooth their weary bones.

Emil stopped trying to speak as he looked at the green-eyed blonde. However, he couldn't help but shake under the man's gaze – even if he didn't look that frightening, what he just did proved he was something to be scared of.

"And your family had a lot of nerve," Arthur continued. "Gobbling all of the spirit's food like a sounder of pigs." He reached for a cigar from a small tin near the treasure box, and stuck one in his mouth. Clicking his fingers, a little flame appeared; floating above his right index finger. "And you should be punished, too," bringing the flame up to the end of the cigar, he took a heave. Giving a deep exhale, a great amount of white smoke started to fill the room. Arching a bushy eyebrow, Arthur's emerald orbs looked to the ceiling, "You could be a piglet. Or does being a pile of coal suit your fancy?"

When he looked at Emil, he gave a cackle, "I can see you're shaking." Taking hold of cigar, he tapped the end of it, "Actually, I'm quite impressed you were able to get here this far. Surely someone must have helped you. Why don't I thank them for all they've done?"

Alarm bells started to ring a little in Emil's head upon hearing that. Remembering all those who helped him get here; Quan, Chun-Yan, Lovino and Ms Kristine, his posture became rigid as a sinking feeling churned within his stomach.

"Go on," Arthur coaxed as he raised a hand. "Who was it? Why don't you tell me?" he moved his cinched fingers in a reverse movement from before.

Instantly, Emil felt the strange force disappear from his mouth, and he could open it again. He licked his lips before calling, "Please, give me a job!"

Arthur slammed his hands on his table, looking outraged, "Don't start that nonsense again!" His voice was just as angry as his expression as he was on his feet.

"Please!" Emil shouted, even taking a little step forward in determination. "I just want to work!"

"I said _not_ to say… _that_ …!" Arthur's emerald orbs widened as his pupils shrunk, and his whole figure hunched down. His once angered tone narrowed down to an inhuman snarl. The objects around him – paper, bottles of ink, the pens and some books started to tremble and shudder. The curtains intertwined and twisted among themselves while the little desk lamp flickered on and off, shaking as well. The shadows that once settled around the red walls were dancing as they stretched in elongated figures. The fireplace's blaze was also starting to roar more madly.

In a burst of paper, ink and shadows, Arthur leapt from his spot behind his desk and flew through the air. The roar of the fireplace's flame suddenly erupting in a great inferno greatly lit the entire room in orange and red. He landed with such a resounding boom, that it rattled the entire room, causing Emil to almost lose his footing. Arthur, however, landed right in front of him, and instantly got into his face, glaring head on with enraged flames swirling around in his hues.

" _Why_ the bloody hell do you think I should even give _you_ a damn job?!" demanded Arthur, now shouting. He snarled as he sidestepped around the pale-haired boy, "Everyone can see that you're a spoiled, immature, bratty little pain in the arse, and stupid to boot!" For every insulting adjective, the English wizard jabbed a finger in Emil's chest.

Despite the fact Arthur appeared around the same build and height as Emil, whenever his finger stabbed into his chest, Emil couldn't help but flinch as he felt a heavy force push against it. He was shaking even worse than before, truly terrified of his current predicament.

"This is a high-class place I run here, and it definitely doesn't need you!" snapped Arthur. "Now, get the hell out! I have all the twits I need around here!" Noticing Emil's shaking, though, Arthur rubbed his chin, now smirking at the boy's trembling figure. "Or perhaps, maybe I should just give you the most difficult job I have?" his voice was laced with amusement as he placed one hand on Emil's shoulder. "And have you work your way until you reach your very last _breath_."

Emil started to whimper as his teeth chattered to match his trembling. He squeezed his eyes shut when he could feel Arthur press closer. The blonde's hand on his shoulder caused his skin to crawl. He arched his neck up when he felt sharp nails dig under his chin as that hand reached close to his throat.

Suddenly, a loud boom resounded throughout the floor.

Emil looked in direction to where it came from along with Arthur. Arthur froze from his own actions, eyes widening when another boom thundered around the room. Pieces of paper and books dropped from the desk, and everything shook and rattled.

At first Emil thought that it could possibly be a loud drum, however as it came closer and closer, he realized, as the whole floor shook, it wasn't a drumbeat.

It was _footsteps_.

A great wail pierced throughout the air as Emil saw a green door nearby smash into bits. Pieces of wood, and splintered fragments flew everywhere as immense bawling echoed around the room – piercing, and effectively breaking, the once threatening atmosphere. The three, glowing fairies gave worried whispers and squeaks of shock as they flittered away from their spot so that they wouldn't be crushed by the wood.

Still, Emil backed up when he saw the door break apart; shattered to pieces. There was another bang as this time, the curtains toppled over, crashing into the wall nearby, creating a dent along with a crack.

"Oh dear, you woke up the baby!" Arthur cried in concern, his once threatening tone lowered down to a suddenly concerned voice. He immediately ran forward as he gripped one of the curtains. Poking his head behind it, he cooed, "Oh, don't cry; big brother is here now…" Looking up, his voice immediately reverted to its angry, hostile tone upon seeing that Emil didn't run, "Why on earth are you still here?! Bollocks, I told you to leave!"

"I want a job!" Emil shouted in response, now gripping the front of his dress shirt.

"You quiet down!" Arthur hissed urgently as the wailing of the .baby grew more distressed and upset. "You're scaring him!" Arthur was blown back slightly as there was a great whack.

It appeared that the baby punched or hit the blonde.

Pieces of broken wood now scattered in his hair, the green-eyed wizard plastered a quick smile on his face, as he turned to whatever was behind the curtain. Emil couldn't see what the baby looked like, however he didn't want to know what kind of spawn it was. On the contrary, just trying to think about it gave him the chills.

"Oh, don't be angry," Arthur's voice softened down to a gentle coo. Another crunching snap was heard as Arthur's figure seemed to crouch slightly. "That's a good boy, there, there."

"I'm not leaving until you give me a job!" Emil shouted, purposefully making his voice loud. Though it could possibly backfire as Arthur wouldn't obviously like that, and obviously, neither would the baby since its crying got louder and more upset.

Still, that was a risk he was willing to take. Any risk was worth it if it was for his family.

"Okay, okay!" Arthur whispered hurriedly, glowering in Emil's direction. "Now, just keep quiet!" Turning to the baby behind the curtains, a beam suddenly spread out on his face, "Here comes big brother, I'm coming to get you!" And with that, he disappeared behind the silken curtains, his footsteps clattering on the tiles. The sound of a childish giggle was also heard.

When the sound of Arthur's footsteps disappeared, Emil stood there in silence. He could only hear his heart continue to beat. The fairies were simply flittering in silence. One looked uncertainly at one of its companions before looking in Emil's direction as the fireplace continued to flicker small flames. Another fellow fairy stared at Emil.

The atmosphere grew tense yet again.

All of a sudden, a single piece of paper was struggling to remove itself from a pile of the crashed debris that was caused from the baby's racket. One of the fancy pens floated up when, after a bit more shaking and twitching, the piece of paper was free from the stack of fallen pieces. It floated breezily in the air before settling right in front of Emil.

The violet-eyed boy took hold of the piece of paper, along with the pen in surprise.

"Your contract," Arthur's voice called wearily. The blonde wizard emerged from behind the fallen curtains, removing pieces and splinters of wood from his hair. Brushing the dust away from the front of his plaid sweater vest, he waved his hand around a few times and pointed at things as well. Wherever his finger pointed or whatever direction his hand waved at, the items in the room started to float and rearrange themselves. The curtain fixed itself by raising up strong; the papers and books all stacked neatly on the desk; and the treasure box, which had spilt its glittering contents of a few pouches, beads, jewels and gold pieces, flew back onto the desk. "Sign your name there, and I'll put you to work. But if I hear _one_ peep out of you, you're joining your family down in the pigpen."

Emil was astonished, yet at the same time, a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. "So, I…" he motioned to the paper on a particular spot at the bottom where a dotted line was. "Do I just sign my name here?"

"Just sign it," Arthur cut in bluntly. "Do you want the job or not?"

Emil took the paper and crouched onto the ground and started to write his name on the required spot.

At the same time, Arthur rubbed at his head. "Unbelievable. I can't believe that oath I took," the blonde wizard grumbled to himself. He pointed a few times, and the items flew up to fix and rearrange themselves again. He then yanked on what appeared to be some kind of cord, twice – ringing out a dainty sounding bell. Straightening the top part of a lamp, he shook his head, "Giving a job to whoever asks. Ridiculous! Ha!" With his hand outstretched, he lit up the lightbulb.

Emil was still crouched over on his spot, quickly scrawling his name. His hand was so shaky, he was afraid that he would write his name wrong.

"Are you done yet?" Arthur's voice was impatient.

The paper carefully slid away from underneath Emil's grip as he finished writing his name. "Y-yes," he stammered out as he watched the contract flutter into the wizard's grip.

Gazing down, Arthur arched a bushy eyebrow, "So…your name is Emil?"

"Yes, sir," Emil responded with a nod. He got to his feet.

"That's a really nice name," Arthur murmured, waving his hand on top of the signature. The writing suddenly started to waver as the cursive letters began to stretch and squash within itself. Suddenly, the letters started to morph into strange characters several times. First the characters appeared curved and even round at some points; the second time the characters changed was soft strokes. The third time, the signature then stopped – into straighter lines. Several of the letters unstuck themselves from the paper, floating slowly up into Arthur's open palm. He grabbed them and closed his hand until _"Emil Steilsson"_ was no longer on the page.

Instead, a new one of strange symbols remained.

Arthur gave a small smirk, "And it belongs to me now."

Emil could only stare, somewhat confused as to what the blonde wizard meant.

"From now on, your name is _'Rune_ , you understand?" said Arthur. "Answer me, Rune!"

Emil straightened his posture before nodding, "Y-yes, sir!"

"You called for me?"

Emil turned to the source of the voice upon hearing how familiar it was. His violet eyes widened upon seeing the familiar figure of Quan lift up his straw hat so that his golden hues were seen.

"The boy signed a contract," Arthur explained, waving a nonchalant hand. "Set him to work immediately."

"Understood," Quan responded with a short nod. He turned in Emil's direction, his face serious and hard. "What is your name?"

"What?" Emil looked surprised at the Asian male's absolutely stoic demeanour. "Emi…" however, remembering what just happened with the contract he just signed, he stopped himself. "Oh. It's Rune," he responded.

"Very well, Rune," Quan gave another curt nod before turning his back on the boy. "Follow me."

Leaving Arthur's room, the two boarded the elevator that came right on the dot. The elevator ride down was in cold silence that made Emil feel very uneasy. It didn't help that the person with him, who had helped him so much reach to here, suddenly seemed to emanate a very cold and unfriendly aura. Quan stood very straight like a soldier who was on duty, and his eyes were fixed forward.

Emil shuffled a little in his spot. "Quan…?" he began to ask, however he was abruptly cut off.

"Do not speak to me," Quan's low, frosty voice bit back. "And address me as _'Master Quan'_."

His eyes widening from the blunt response, Emil looked away, eyes fixed to the floor as he wondered why the Asian was being so unfriendly. Sure, he appeared serious and strong, however Quan was also very patient, and even comforted him before in his own staid manner. Emil was certain that Quan was capable of being gentle and understanding – he did show him that before when he saw what had happened to his family and helped him here.

Remembering Arthur from before and what he was capable of doing, Emil recalled the cord that the blonde wizard had pulled. Quan appeared not long after, so it seemed that he was working under him.

' _Yet, he still helped me…'_ Emil gave an inaudible sigh, starting to feel his head hurt slightly. Hurting from everything that just happened, and hurting from his uncertainty on whether Quan was truly a friend or not.

For all Emil knew, perhaps Quan just assisted him so that he could stay in the spirit world forever.

When they reached the floor where all the workers stayed at, Quan stepped out evenly with Emil following suit. The chatter that was on the floor instantly died away when they caught sight of the silver-haired human.

"I don't care if Arthur gets angry at us," one of the female spirits spoke up after Quan mentioned that Emil was to work there from now on.

"We're not taking in humans," another female spirit spoke up loudly.

Quan was totally unfazed. "He's already under contract," he said frankly.

Hearing this, there was a number of gasps and constant murmuring and prattling among the huge crowd of spirits. Some sounded shocked, others sounded outraged, while others were unsure.

"I promise to work very hard," Emil said as he bowed his head down. He didn't like the looks, pointing and whispering in his direction, but he tried to ignore it.

"We're _not_ bringing him into our apartment," a male spirit this time spoke up behind the Icelandic boy, hiding his face behind a fan.

Another male spirit nodded, covering the bottom half of his face with his arm, "His stench will fill up the whole place!"

"We don't want him," a female spirit different to the other two who spoke up before grumbled.

Quan continued to look void of expression before he raised his voice, "Three days of eating our food, and the smell should disappear. And if he doesn't do his job properly, then roast him, boil him. Do whatever you want."

Emil felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end upon hearing that. He looked at Quan with his mouth slightly open, disbelieving that the older male had even said that.

Quan narrowed his eyes to the size of poison darts before speaking again – the ice in his voice started to grow sharper and colder, in Emil's opinion. "Now, all of you get back to work," he said. Flicking his straw hat up, he called, "Where is Lovino?"

" _Che cosa_?!" a familiar voice shouted in protest. When most of the other spirits immediately left to resume with their tasks, Lovino was in sight. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and was leaning on the doorway to what appeared to be a hallway. "Hey! Don't dump the little bastard on me!"

"You did say that you wanted an assistant," said Quan smoothly.

"That's perfect!" the female spirit who spoke up clapped her hands happily. "Give the boy to Lovino!"

"Rune, off you go," Quan nodded in Lovino's direction.

Emil only responded with a nod back as he murmured in a quiet voice, "Right…" before bringing himself to Lovino's side.

"Shut up!" Lovino snapped at a group of male spirits who were laughing in his direction. "What the hell are you all laughing at me for?!" He glared angrily in Quan's direction, "You owe me one, you hear me, you straw hat bastard!" However, taking a good look at Quan's flashing, golden hues made the Italian perk up with a rather unmanly squeak in his mouth.

"Have a nice day~!" the female spirit, who was second to speak, said in a sing-song voice. She waved in their direction.

"Tch…" Lovino's curl was crooked before he left the room. Noticing that Emil wasn't with him, he stuck his head back in the room and snapped in the boy's ear, "Get your ass over here!"

Emil followed the Italian spirit quietly, his hands clasping together at his front, as his eyes fixed to the floor. Far too many questions were running through his mind now – what was going to happen? How long would he stay here? How could he help his family now? Did Quan really mean it when he said that he was his friend and with him? Or was he just like Arthur and just wanted to see him struggle until his last breath? What sort of work would lie in store for him?

He was brought back into reality by Lovino's voice when the two were alone. "I can't believe you actually pulled it off!" the brown-haired spirit said.

"What?" Emil looked up, surprised.

"Well, you're such a dipshit, I couldn't help but wonder!" Lovino explained. However, upon Emil's look, he snorted, "It's not like I was worried about you – I just wondered what was going on with you, that's all." Still, after a little sigh, he placed a hand on his hip, "Well, you're my henchman from now on! So, if you got a question, just ask me about it, okay? I don't want you screwing up."

"Okay…" Emil murmured.

"Hm?" Lovino arched an eyebrow. "What's up with you?"

"I don't feel so good…" Emil admitted softly. His head was starting to hurt, his chest felt as if it was badly pressed upon, and his stomach was filled with so many knots that churned around unpleasantly.

Lovino brought Emil to the quarters where he and some other workers were sleeping at. Opening a wardrobe, he started to rummage through some garments. Picking up a navy blue cloth, he tossed it to Emil, who stood silently by. "There's your apron," spoke up Lovino from his spot as he continued to dig through. "You gotta clean it yourself." Taking a quick look at Emil, the Italian scratched his head, "Damn, you're so puny…" He pulled out a shirt much like the one he was wearing, but looking back and forth at it and Emil, he quickly muttered, "Way too big…"

"Um, Lovino?" Emil spoke up.

"What?"

"You know Quan?"

Lovino rolled his eyes from his spot, giving a groan, "What about him?"

"There…there aren't two of him here, are there?" inquired Emil. That was the other possible explanation on why Quan had a sudden change of demeanour. The other possibilities were that he was trying to uphold pretences so that Arthur wouldn't found out (though he was cold and terse in the elevator when they were alone); he was truly faking his extended hand before and also wanted to see him struggle (he _did_ work under Arthur it seemed, and Arthur did seem to relish at the thought of him working to his very last breath); or that there were two of him (it wouldn't be that outlandish since he was a spirit).

"Two of that straw hat bastard?" Lovino arched an eyebrow before flashing Emil an incredulous look. "I can barely stand one of him." Taking another shirt out, he shook his head, "Too big." Skimming through the contents again, he called over his shoulder, "He's the brow bastard—I mean, Arthur's right-hand man, don't trust a thing he tells you."

Upon the response, Emil felt the knots in his stomach start to wring in and out. His head hurt even more; making him begin to feel dizzy, and the thing that pressed onto his chest surged harder. It reached the point that he couldn't help but cry out from the pain. A little seed of doubt started to grow from within when he thought of Quan. Though there was an equal chance that he was simply holding up pretences so that Arthur wouldn't suspect that he was the one who helped him so much in the beginning, but the seed was rapidly growing as Emil tried to think more and more about it as rationally and objectively as he could.

His feelings were just that much stronger than his mind.

Still, his once huge amount of pride that he either squashed down, discarded, crumbled or just hid away deep within him throughout his stressful and tiring experience suddenly resurfaced. It forced him to stop from crying out, so he came out in a slight choke.

Feeling his heart pick up pace, thoroughly sick in the stomach, aching in the head, upset at the thought that perhaps someone he trusted so quickly may not be as he appeared, along with being just plain exhausted, Emil crumbled. He hid his head in his knees as he was hunched over – the little amount of his previously great pride fighting with his emotions wanting to express themselves. He made a few choking noises, giving a small whimper as he clutched at his stomach and chest. His vision started to blur.

"Aha! Gotcha, you bastard!" Lovino exclaimed in triumph – yanking out a shirt that was the right size. "Hell yeah!" When he looked over at his new henchman, his hazel eyes widened in shock while his curl bounced up. "What the-? Hey," the Italian crouched down and placed his hands on Emil's shoulders. "What the hell's wrong with you…?"

" _Ve_ , quiet down…" a voice groaned in exhaustion. From the floor, there was a spirit who looked a bit like Lovino, except he had lighter coloured hair and eyes, a much higher-pitched voice, and his curl stuck out from the other side. "What's wrong, _fratello_?"

"New guy, Feliciano," Lovino responded, actually feeling glad that the other woke up. In all honesty, he wasn't good with this kind of thing. Well, with men and boys, anyway. With women, it was a different story, but right now, it was a boy. "He doesn't feel so good."

The other spirit, Feliciano, got up with his interest and concern now visible. He crawled out from under his blankets and rubbed at Emil's back gently. He also started to talk in a soothing tone while Lovino got up to take some blankets and a pillow out for the boy. He heaved a sigh as he fixed someplace to sleep for the human.

* * *

 **[Characters]  
Arthur = England  
Feliciano = Italy**

 **Despite the whole renaming part for Emil, I chose to keep Emil's name onward unless he's being spoken to, just so the reader wouldn't get confused. Why the name "Rune"? Well, to be perfectly honest, it was somewhat random, somewhat not. I was debating on whether to just use another one of the possible names Himaruya had for Iceland, but they didn't sound brief enough, nor did I feel they would fit for some reason.**

 **Either way, next chapter will be up on Friday for me.**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	5. A Day at the River

**Hello, guys~ just lil' old me, and here with another chapter. :D as here where I am, it's Friday. =^^=**

 **Anyway, HUGE thanks to** Clawdeen144578 **,** Kirascribbler **and** amichalap **for the faves; and to** TheWolfThatRunsFree **and** mimi-chan and aliling-chan **for the follows! :D**

* * *

Just as night turned into dawn, things started to settle down in the spirit world.

Many of the supernatural beings either went home, or started to retire in several of the restaurant buildings' upper segments where there were rooms. Things became silent and still – opening a peaceful morning.

It was the early winks of twilight, when little rays of sunlight were still developing among blue shades. There was still movement occurring at the top floor of the bathhouse.

From within its walls, there was a figure wrapped in black cloaks. The only thing viewable being emerald orbs and a pair of prominently bushy eyebrows.

Arthur adjusted his cloak as he brought the front up to conceal his mouth. He then fixed at the hood so that his messy hair was also quite hidden from view. Looking up, he saw his little, green companion flying in whimsical circles, appearing excited. The three fairies were flittering around, watching closely. Finally fixing his eyes to the side, he caught sight of the man working under him.

Quan simply gazed back with a stoic demeanour and a straight posture. He watched as Arthur look him in the eye as emerald met with gold.

Narrowing his eyes, Arthur finally turned his back from the spirit opposite to him. He swept his arms up, and suddenly, the folds of black cloth started to separate into many segments. From the way they started to poke out and fold into one another, they morphed into multiple collections of black feathers. As the wizard hunched his figure down and leapt up, the cloak's black cloth wrapped around his legs, making them stick-thin, yet sturdy. The cloak that concealed his mouth suddenly began to protrude out to a point and grew hard until a beak effectively formed on his face.

By the time he reached the window sill and shot out of the building, there was no longer a blonde wizard.

But a raven with emerald eyes and bushy eyebrows.

The green creature flew after the crow closely. When the two disappeared from sight, the fairies whispered amongst themselves as they flew away.

Quan stayed where he was, his golden hues following the wizard quietly before the fairies that just left. Looking up at the grey clouds, he softly closed his eyes.

After a minute or two, he opened them once more.

* * *

The sleeping pattern for the spirits was far different than what Emil was used to. When it was morning and the afternoon, it was time for them to retire to bed. By the time the sun set, they would get up and work hard.

Currently, Emil was curled up into a ball in his new sleeping spot. Like with the other male workers, the silver-haired youth was lying on a padded mattress with a few quilts and blankets. Lovino had pulled out a pillow as well, and was currently snoring at his right. Feliciano, who Emil discovered to be Lovino's younger brother, had tried to hug and comfort him, but in all honesty, the violet-eyed boy didn't feel any better. Despite his change of clothes suiting the summertime and workplace - that being a dark singlet, a somewhat baggy pair of shorts, and a matching blouse that Lovino had yanked out from the closet, he shivered as he curled in his blanket.

He still felt scared and cold.

Utterly alone.

He couldn't sleep, and he was starting to sweat. He tried, but he found himself tossing and turning a couple of times, stomach still churning into many knots. His head no longer hurt, but his heart was beating faster and faster as the seed of doubt in relation to Quan continued to grow. Spreading its roots throughout his thoughts. He was in a new place, wearing new clothes (and for all he knew, they could've possibly been somebody else's), and there were only a select few with familiar faces. The rest would be a sea of different faces.

Everything was so different. A huge change.

And in all honesty, he was scared of such an alteration.

Moving to a new house was nothing compared to this. At least he still had his family there with him.

Hearing the door to the room that he, Lovino and the other male spirits who worked there, Emil's amethyst orbs darted to the direction it came from. Though faint, he could hear and the slight pressing of footsteps on the wooden floorboards. He could also just _feel_ a being that most certainly didn't seem to be from the sleeping quarters enter quietly. He trembled when he could hear the footsteps get louder by only a tiny fraction.

And they were heading towards him.

Curling up more, Emil squeezed his eyes shut, his whole figure going rigid. He held his breath as he felt the figure slowly crouch down a little behind his head. Opening his eyes halfway, he could see a hand resting in front of his face.

The callous and rough surface of it was unmistakeable.

What did he want? Emil wasn't sure, but he braced himself.

"Meet me at the bridge," Quan's deep, low voice spoke in a silent yet strong whisper. "I will take you to your family."

Eyes widening upon hearing so, Emil saw the hand raise itself along with its owner. He could hear the footsteps begin to leave along with the soft shut of the wooden sliding door. After letting the information sink in, the Icelandic boy slowly sat up from his bed, and looked down in his lap.

His hands were still trembling.

After settling himself down the best he could, Emil walked into the boiler room to try and find his socks and boots. He didn't need his jacket as it was still a summer's morning, however he didn't like the idea of walking barefoot outside. Coming inside, he was a little surprised to see Chun-Yan snoozing away – snoring as loudly as Lovino on the podium that she worked at, with only a blanket on her being. Her head rested on one pair of arms.

Recalling her words of being the slave that heats the baths, Emil couldn't help but feel his heart twinge in pity.

Looking around, he noticed that the incinerator was shut off along with the boiler, and that even the soot balls seemed to be sleeping. Scanning the area, he wondered, "Where are my…?"

Hearing some faint squeaks, Emil looked to see the balls of soot exiting from their little holes. They looked quite eager and interested upon seeing him up so early. Before Emil knew it, he saw a number of them suddenly carry something over their multiple beings.

"My boots!" he exclaimed. Realizing that that came out louder than what he expected, he quickly stopped and looked in Chun-Yan's direction. He didn't want to wake her up.

The many-armed spirit simply turned on her other side, giving another loud snore.

"Thank you very much," Emil bowed his head in gratitude when the soot balls brought them up to him. Slipping his feet into his socks and boots, he laced up the strings and tapped his foot on the ground a few times to check that they were on properly. Seeing that the soot balls were squeaking a little bit, he noticed his jacket was also inside their holed home, and looked to be fine. "Thank you for keeping my jacket, too."

And with that, he was on his way.

But before he left, he could hear the squeaking of the soot balls become slightly louder. Looking up, he saw a number of them leap up and seemingly dance around. They appeared quite encouraging and enthusiastic with him.

Emil felt a small smile reach his face as he gave a small wave in their direction before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Coming out, he made his way to meet Quan on the bridge. The Asian spirit only looked at him briefly before he gave a nod. Emil noticed that he also seemed to have a satchel slung over his right shoulder and rested on his left hip. Turning his back as he walked into a certain direction, it was a signal for the pale-haired human to follow him.

He complied with some hesitance.

Emil saw that they were going by a river with leaf hedges that soon grew taller one you travelled within. He was soon surrounded with hedges filled with flowers – the greenery towering over his figure and Quan's. The pale pastel colours of the petals beautifully decorating the green leaves giving a rather whimsical feeling to the place. However, at the same time, there was something strange about how the flowers looked so jolly as they painted the area with their dapples of pretty colours that made Emil's skin crawl.

Perhaps it was because despite their beauty, this place was so frightening and had many dangers? Or was it _because_ of their beauty being set in a frightening place was what made him squirm?

There was only a straight dirt path as Quan continued to lead him. Never once did he turn back to look at him.

"If you are caught here," his voice spoke up clearly and seriously. "You will be turned into a pig yourself. So, don't ever come here without me."

Emil fastened his pace, however he made sure not to be too close.

After walking what seemed like an hour, they were out of the flower hedges, and at a pigsty. Quan allowed Emil to enter first before looking around cautiously. He followed and walked forward to the large pen just right in front of them where there were four pigs sleeping soundly.

When Quan finally turned to look at him, Emil stared back at forth between the dark-haired spirit and the pigs in the pen. He was unsure – there were four of them, but were they really…?

Seeing the golden-eyed man give a nod, Emil immediately burst forward.

He gripped onto the railings that separated him from the pigs tightly. He called out to them – voice filled with concern, fear and worry, "Big brother?! Tino?! Berwald?! Mathias?! Are you all alright, it's me, Rune!"

Quan narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched silently from his spot. He had backed away a bit to give the human boy some space.

"Hey!" Emil raised his voice; anxious to get a response.

The answer he got was a slight flap of one of the pigs' ears.

Emil whipped his head in Quan's direction, "What's wrong with them? Are…are they sick?" The very thought filled him with dread.

Luckily, the dark-haired spirit shook his head, "No. They are simply bloated; they ate too much." Fixing his eyes onto the pigs, he added, "They don't remember being human."

Something inside of Emil seemed to grow from hearing that. And whatever it was, it ached at his chest, bringing the immense pain back. Only this time, it also rose to his throat, creating a huge lump. His vision started to get blurry as he could feel something wet form at the corners of his eyes. He tried to suppress it again, but seeing his family in such a state and Quan telling him that they don't remember being human, which by that extension, would include Emil himself, brought him closer to the edge.

"Don't you worry, I promise I'll get you out of here!" Emil shouted – his voice suddenly raised to a distressed pitch. His once bottled up emotions suddenly burst out from the bubble that concealed them in before. "Just don't get any fatter otherwise they'll eat you!"

And with that, he fled from the pigpen.

Emil then knew why he the beautiful and petite flowers made him feel so uneasy and his skin to crawl.

That their beauty was kept in a place that led him to dread on the possibility that he could fail in saving his family. They could become someone's next meal, and their blood may just as well water their petite petals.

* * *

"Here."

After Emil's visit at the pigpen, Quan found him quite close to the river. The human was on his haunches with his head resting in his arms and knees. As a small water wheel continued to spin, and the sun shone rather brilliantly, the golden-eyed spirit came close and let the boy grieve for a bit from the confirmation that his family was truly cursed into swine. Obviously, it would still be a huge shock. When he felt the time was right, Quan reached into the satchel he brought, and took out what appeared to be some folded clothes.

Raising his head up, Emil's eyes stretched wide before he instantly grabbed what the man standing over him was handing to him. "My clothes…" he remarked, holding his white dress shirt and brown trousers close. "But I thought they were thrown away," he looked up in question.

"You'll need them to get home," responded Quan tonelessly.

Looking at his clothes again, Emil felt something in one of the pockets of his trousers. "Wait…" reaching inside of it, he pulled out a little card. "My goodbye card is still here," he murmured.

' _Goodbye card?'_ Quan snapped his head in direction of the little piece of writing. His golden hues were slightly widened upon seeing it in the boy's hands. However, he relaxed his shoulders as Emil read the contents to himself in a mumble.

"' _Emil'_ …" the silver-haired youth scowled as he squinted his eyes at the name. It was familiar, yet he couldn't quite place it. After thinking for a good minute or two, the Icelandic boy perked up, "Oh, wait." Looking up at Quan questioningly, he commented, "That's my name, isn't it?"

Quan's eyes narrowed upon the question, "That is how Arthur can control people. By stealing their name." Seeing Emil look bewildered, the spirit continued, this time facing his whole figure in his direction, "But as long as you're still here, you must continue to address yourself as _'Rune.'_ So, keep that card well hidden. If you can't remember your name at all once everything is over, then you'll never be able to return home."

Feeling the heavy weight of the spirit's words press down on him, Emil's jaw dropped slightly. He looked down at the card in his shaking hands and at his real name that was written with fine penmanship right before his eyes. "I can't believe it…" he whispered, voice quietly trembling. However it sounded more like he was speaking to himself than to his companion. "He almost took it from me…" the grip on the card tightened. _'How could I forget my own name?'_ he wondered to himself. _'Emil…I'm Emil. My name is Emil.'_

"As I said before," said Quan. "Keep that card hidden. Keep your name close." Looking forward, his eyes fell to the ground. He murmured lowly, "I've tried everything to remember mine."

Upon hearing that statement, Emil instantly looked at him. "You…can't remember your name?" he asked uncertainly. Hearing that made the once thriving seed of doubt that grew within him in regards to Quan, started to shrivel slightly. Recalling Lovino's words of describing Quan as Arthur's _'right-hand man'_ seemed to be false.

It sounded more like Quan himself was stuck as well.

"No, but…" much to Emil's immense surprise, the corners of Quan's thin lips moved up to form a small smile. It wasn't a twitch like that tiny one he gave before when he helped him from disappearing, but this time it looked more obvious. A quiet chuckle rumbled in his throat as he looked at him with a gentle expression, "For some strange reason, I can recall yours."

Emil said nothing as he continued to look at Quan's smile – there was something soothing about it. And it made the seed of doubt start to choke on its own thorns along with its roots.

"You must be hungry," Quan settled down on his own haunches as he reached into his satchel again. What he pulled out appeared to be three rolls. They were neatly rolled in what appeared to be rice paper, and had some kind of vegetable sticking out from the bottom like a tail. Emil could also see tinges of orange, signalling that there could be prawn in it.

Though the food looked really good, and Quan was kind enough to offer it to him, Emil looked down, eyes gazing at the ground. "No thanks," he murmured. "I don't want any…"

Quan seemed to expect the response, however. His small smile didn't leave his face as a knowing glint made his golden hues glitter. "Don't worry," he reassured. "I put a spell on it. It will give you back your strength."

Giving the food and Quan's offering hand another look, Emil slowly looked up to look Quan in the eye. The dark-haired spirit simply gave an encouraging nod as he slowly raised up his hand with the rice paper rolls.

Hesitantly, Emil took one of the rolls and gave it a sniff. It smelt quite fresh, and it didn't appear to have anything wrong with it. Giving a careful bite, a slightly salty yet also refreshing flavour slowly spread out on his tongue. Chewing a bit more, Emil's eyes widened a bit as he took another bite into the rice paper roll in his hands. More of the lovely flavour caressed his tongue as he could taste mint and prawns along with other vegetables.

However, as he tried to swallow, the lump in his throat began to throb along with the pain in his chest.

Once more, he tried to suppress the pain that was trying to get him to cry out, as not only did he still have a tiny bit of pride from its immense load before, but he also didn't want to appear ungrateful or weak in front of Quan. His vision blurring as his eyes were starting to get wet, he began to bite and eat more of the rice paper roll quickly to try and distract himself from the pain and all his worried feelings of fear and dread. They were all culminating into a swirling typhoon of emotions.

Of not only being unable to somehow save his family, but also being able to lose himself.

Just that thought of being unable to do anything. Of no longer being his own person and never getting out of there with his family again.

He couldn't help it anymore.

Once he was able to finish and swallow the first rice paper roll, he broke down there and now. All of his once bottled up emotions were released in full swing – he couldn't hold them back anymore.

Hunching over, he cried.

He no longer cared if someone else could hear and see him in such a pathetic and vulnerable state. He didn't want to hold his feelings inside anymore, either. He was tired of it, and he no longer wanted it to hurt.

Giving a loud, desperate wail, Emil sobbed long and hard as a myriad of tears poured from his now reddening eyes. He sniffed and wept, rubbing at his eyes as more and more of the crystal drops fell like raindrops. His whole figure was trembling as his shoulders wracked and heaved with his crying. The knots in his stomach were starting to untwist and fade, his head no longer ached, and the lump in his throat melted way.

However, his chest was still heavy. It continued to throb, causing him to cry out even more.

Quan simply remained silent for a little while to let the boy release his emotions. It honestly looked like he needed that. Placing a tender hand around the human's shoulders, he shuffled a little closer; small, gentle smile still on his usually serious face. He held his hand up a bit more where two more rice paper rolls remained. "Have some more," he urged; voice comfortingly low and soft in tone. "You'll be fine."

Emil looked up as he grabbed both of the rolls this time. He ate at both, however he couldn't help but continue to cry.

It wasn't certain how long the two of them stayed in that spot. But after a while, Emil was finally able to fully settle down. Once he did, though, despite feeling a bit tired and even sleepy (to which he assumed was the spell that Quan had put on the rolls he offered), he also felt far better than how he was before.

Quan walked him back to the bridge and watched him closely the whole way to make sure the boy was okay. He certainly looked a bit better than before after letting all of his pent-up emotions loose.

When they reached the first side of the bridge, they parted ways.

"Just work hard," Quan advised. The smile was no longer on his face, but when Emil looked closely in his honey-coloured hues, he could see a little flame of fondness flickering from within them. "But it's still day, so make sure to take a rest, first. If you need anything, don't hesitate to come find me."

Emil bowed his head down in respect. He couldn't help but feel a small smile spread on his face for all that he had done to help him. The seed of doubt no longer remained – it was gone.

The silver-haired knew that he could trust Quan.

"Thank you, Quan," said Emil gratefully. "I will, I'll work hard. You've been a really good friend."

Quan simply bowed his head back in acknowledgement and respect – watching Emil run down the bridge with his clothes and goodbye card.

Emil had gone down the bridge, holding his clothes tight. He made sure to feel in the pocket of his brown pants a few times to make sure that the card was still in there. He didn't want to ever forget his name again. However, with support from Quan, Lovino and the Italian spirit's brother, Emil couldn't help but feel a little flame of determination spark in his being.

Turning around to wave at Quan one last time before he got inside to sleep for the remainder of the day, he stopped upon seeing that the dark-haired Asian spirit was nowhere in sight.

Looking around, his eyes finally settled up in the sky.

Among the white clouds, there was a long and thin, pale blue shape that was twisting around. There was some kind of large, protruding fin that ran down its spine up to the start of its tail, along with a great, black mane.

Emil squinted his eyes to have a better look of the strange shape that was flying away in the sky. After taking a good look, the Icelandic boy blinked. "Quan…" he breathed in awe. "You're a dragon…?"

More questions about the dark-haired spirit that had helped him from the very beginning started to pop into his head. Especially when he had mentioned that he couldn't remember his own name. For all Emil knew, Quan wasn't even his real name – but just a fake one that the bushy browed wizard had given him in return of his services.

In that case, where did Quan come from? Emil was certain that the golden-eyed male wasn't a human, considering he could turn into a dragon, if he was correct on assuming that the twisting shape in the sky was indeed Quan. Why did he want to work here in the first place? Did he have any friends or family, or was he alone? More of these questions popped up, and it made Emil wonder if he could help the spirit in any way.

Did Quan lose himself? Was that why he was helping him so much?

Emil really hoped he could help him. Quan had done so much to help him, after all.

He truly did seem to care about him.

* * *

Chun-Yan gave a groan as she rubbed at her eyes. Squinting her brown hues, she scowled lightly upon seeing that it was still daylight considering the little dapples of sunshine that were still peeking through a few cracks. Reaching for a little teapot that had some water in it, she was about to take a drink and possibly get back to bed, when she caught sight of something interesting upon her elbow.

Looking down, she saw Emil sleeping soundly on the step over the dirt where the balls of soot would walk in direction to the incinerator to throw their coal. It was the first time she ever saw him look so peaceful and relaxed.

The soot balls were also out from their little hideaways, watching Emil closely. Some appeared to just observe the breathing of the sleeping human, while others had some strange sort of determination in their eyes.

They seemed to have grown very fond of, and attached to the boy ever since he threw one of their coals into the flaming jaws of the metal mouth of the incinerator.

Chun-Yan smiled softly as she sat up a little at seeing the pale-haired human at peace. One pair of her arms took one of her spare blankets and gently laid it around him. Another pair of arms also tenderly tucked him in.

He needed all the rest he could get.

Tonight would be the start of a brand new day of hard work.

* * *

 **And so the chapter comes to a close. The next one will either be on Sunday or Monday. :)**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	6. It's Hard Work

**Hello again - sorry for the next chapter being a little late, but I've been a little busy. ^^'**

 **Anyway, thank you to** Canada Cowboy **for another review! :D**

Canada Cowboy: **That was a really good point that you put up about the part where they trek through the hedges of flowers, as there was definitely potential to explore the glamour yet danger of the spirit world, and that despite something being beautiful, it doesn't necessarily mean it's good or harmless. 0w0 so, I rewrote the chapter and added in a few paragraphs to try and allude that. Thank you very much for taking the time to review and critique my story! I really wish there were more people who could take your approach and review like that - it really helps writers, I feel. w**

 **Anyway, on to the next chapter.**

* * *

As the day continued on, dark clouds were rolling in – covering the once clear, blue sky. They darkened the whole land as with a pitter and a patter, raindrops poured from their bulky beings.

Amongst the rainclouds, a crow with emerald eyes and bushy eyebrows spread its wings – flying back to the top floor of the bathhouse. A little pouch was held by its beak. By its side, a green rabbit-like creature with wings. Both unbothered by the rain.

Inside the top floor of the bathhouse, three fairies were whispering in excitement as they opened the window to let the crow inside.

When the crow flew in, its feathers suddenly started to tremble as they expanded in length. The spindly legs were hidden behind the mass of feathers that grew larger and larger. The crow then started to walk forward as their body became larger and larger – the posture proper and straight, and the feathers morphing into black cloth.

Soon the feathers were nothing more but a cloak.

* * *

Despite it still being technically the day, when rain came, it tended to darken the atmosphere, and so forth, the spirits would work earlier, or open their businesses at a much earlier time. The bathhouse was no exception. However, the spirits of the bathhouse usually woke up much earlier in order to clean what they weren't able to properly clean last night, so that the guests could have a cleaner bath and a nicer time.

In their room, Emil was helping Lovino stack up and put away the mattresses, quilts and pillows. Everyone else was hurriedly moving around; either placing up their own sleeping provisions, or putting on some of their clothes (from aprons to pants).

During the packing, Lovino spoke to his henchman, "Oi, Rune. Where the hell were you? I didn't see you when I woke up." Upon rising from his slumber, the Italian spirit had panicked when he saw that the silver-haired human's mattress was empty. At first he dreaded that perhaps another spirit had whisked him away and done something bad to him, so he woke up Feliciano to help him find him. After looking in the bathroom, they were relieved when they saw the boy walk in direction to their room – sleepily rubbing at his eyes and giving a yawn, but otherwise looking okay.

"Sorry about that," Emil apologized, feeling a bit bad for making the curl-haired male worry.

" _Ve_ ~! Well, it's okay!" Feliciano grinned. "You're here, and now we can start working!"

While Lovino groaned a bit, sounding tired, Emil simply nodded. Still, he couldn't help but feel both intrigued yet anxious as he followed the Italian brothers to retrieve their name tags. The pale-haired human was intrigued on what kind of work spirits do – admittedly, though the place was still frightening with how bizarre and supernatural it was, it was not uninteresting to say the least. Also, he always did like hot baths himself – he found them soothing and relaxing, so he wondered what sort of work goes towards them.

However, he also felt anxious due to his first point of intrigue – this place definitely wasn't for humans: the work may very well push him to his limits. Not a sporty or highly athletic person himself, he wasn't sure how long he was going to last until he either collapsed, or was just plain exhausted.

Arthur could've probably been right – he could very well be working until he breathes his very last breath.

Seeing that a great number of spirits were coming forward to also collect their name tags. Emil peeked from Lovino's side to see one tag third from the bottom that had his new name etched on it. Ever since his talk with Quan about names, the pale-haired human made sure to remind himself that _"Rune"_ wasn't his real name, but _"Emil."_

' _It's my second name for here,'_ he thought to himself as he reached for the tag. However, he felt himself getting bumped to the side by something over him.

There was another male spirit that glared down at him with pale, plum eyes. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, as he snapped, "Out of my way!" Before grabbing his name tag and leaving.

"S-sorry!" Emil stammered out, a bit shocked at how rude the other was speaking. But remembering his place, he was no longer surprised, and simply took hold of his name tag in silence. Remembering Arthur's biting words, and how everyone reacted when Quan brought him after he signed his contract, humans weren't at all liked by spirits. Though considering that his family _did_ eat all of their food without permission...

Emil shook his head - just because they ate their food without permission, didn't mean that it gave the spirits the right to turn them into pigs. It seemed like disproportionate retribution, but then again, this was _not_ his world. The spirits probably had a different system of law and order compared to the human one.

Lovino's response, upon seeing his henchman being pushed to the side, was to give the other spirit the one-finger salute.

Though Emil noticed that he only did it when the other spirit's back was turned.

Emil learned that it wasn't only the baths that needed to be cleaned, but also the rooms – particularly the guest ones, and all the hallways and dining areas. Gazing ahead, he saw that the floorboards were wooden, and that a lot of the lights were on – lending assistance.

Feliciano had taken a white cloth and smiled warmly at Emil as he passed a similar cloth. With how wet and warm it was, along with spotting some white foam and froth on his palm, the Icelandic boy surmised that it was drenched with soap water. Once he took it, Emil saw that Feliciano, along with other male spirits, crouched down in a position as if they were going to start running a marathon with them holding their cloths to the floor.

Hesitantly, Emil followed suit.

Suddenly, they began to run forward to the other side of the wooden floor – white cloth on the floor effectively wiping and cleaning it. It started to look clear and polished.

Noticeably, they were still running in the same position.

Emil ran forward himself.

However, they didn't stop when they reached the other side. Instead, they swiftly turned their bodies around, and ran back to the side they started at.

Though Emil was able to last a few rounds running back and forth cleaning the floor, he felt the sweat start to pop out from the sides of his head, as the muscles in his legs throbbed in agony. He wasn't sure how many times he was running back and forth in such a strange position and cleaning in such an odd way, but after feeling his throat dry up a little, and his body ache and heat up from being constantly in the posture, he found himself collapsing in a crumbled heap on the middle of the floor with a grunt.

Lovino had seen from his position where he was gathering more water, and almost stepped forward, but seeing Emil shakily get up and continue on, he stopped himself.

By the time the floor cleaning was done, Emil's pale cheeks were flushed, and he found himself sweating so much that some of his bangs were matted to his forehead. He squeezed the white cloth he was given really hard – wringing it over another bucket that Lovino had brought for him so that it was rid of the used up water.

" _Ve_ , Rune?" Feliciano tilted his head – curl bouncing a little. "Have you ever worked a hard day in your life?"

After a little bit of thought, Emil shook his head, "Not like this…" He recalled that at the old house, it wasn't as spacious, and he and his family would take their time – doing the chores in such a leisurely fashion. Though they did get distracted a few times, ultimately the house _would_ be clean by the time dinner or lunch was approaching, and they were happy with just spending time together like a family.

Lovino simply rubbed his chin with a quirk of his eyebrow.

"Feli, they need you over there," one of the spirits had gone over and spoke to the younger of the Italian spirits, but Emil didn't pay much mind to it. He was still wringing his cloth to get rid of the water in it.

However, when he was done, there was another spirit who came forward. "Lovino and Rune," he spoke up. "You get the big tub today."

Emil perked his head up when he heard his second name being called out for duty. However, Lovino gawked, "Wha-?! Hey! That's frog work, you bastard!"

"Orders from the top, so quit your whining!"

Since that, Lovino was cursing and grumbling the whole time. Emil could see that the brown-haired spirit was suddenly in a foul mood, so he decided not to press him about the issue. Despite the fact he was very curious about hearing of the big tub.

However, with the name alone, Emil assumed it would take a _lot_ out of them to clean up.

He still wanted to see what the bath was like, though.

Before he and Lovino went to where the big tub was, Emil opened the sliding door and saw some flowering bushes. It was also raining quite heavily outside as the multiple drops drummed down on the tin roof. Tipping his bucket, the used water sloshed outside and splattered on the already wet ground, creating mud.

Looking up however, he noticed that there was a figure there.

From appearances alone, the figure appeared to be a tall, bulky male. He stood a bit of a distance away, but he appeared tall and a bit bulky. His hair was a pale, ashen blonde, and he was wearing a long, tan coat, as well as a pale-coloured scarf. His bangs were matted to the top part of his face, though Emil assumed it was because of the rain.

There was something a bit strange about the spirit opposite him, though Emil was unsure just what it was. He gazed at him for a little bit, wondering if the other spirit was looking back or not.

The scarf-wearing spirit didn't say a word, either.

"Hey…" Emil spoke up uncertainly. "Aren't you wet out there?"

The scarf-wearing spirit then raised his head, showing a pair of surprised, plum orbs blinking at him.

"Oi, Rune!" Lovino's voice shouted from inside. "Hurry it up and get your ass over here already!"

Emil gave a start, but he called in response over his shoulder, "I'm coming!" Standing up with the now empty bucket under his arm, he placed a hand on the slide door. One last time, he turned to the strange, scarf-wearing spirit in the rain, "I'll leave the door open for you."

And with that, he quickly left to find Lovino.

Unbeknownst to him, after some thought, the spirit with the scarf slowly took a small step forward.

After some hesitation, he entered the bathhouse building, still soaked. Looking around, he blinked a few times before a calm and gentle smile suddenly spread out on his face.

Then, taking another step forward, he disappeared.

* * *

When Emil came to Lovino, he was quite shocked at seeing that the Italian spirit was carrying a large rake. He told the violet-eyed boy to keep the bucket as they started to make their way to their destination.

Throughout their little trekking, Emil gazed around and peeked every so often at the baths. He saw that there were quite a number of rooms, and that the floorboards were wooden like everywhere else, and the walls seemed to be painted with different styles (he so far spotted some oriental patterning, and a few floral ones). Still, at the middle of the room, there was that bath itself. Emil saw that the baths were really large, though from what he saw of the spirits so far, he wasn't surprised at the size.

As they walked by another bath, there were two male spirits working in there.

One of them, with short, light brown hair with long bangs covering his right eye, ran forward upon catching sight of them. He called out, "Heard you got the big tub, Lovino!"

"Fuck off, dipshit," was Lovino's grumbling reply. He was really _not_ in the mood.

Turning his head around, Emil saw that they seemed to find it funny, which caused him to get a bit nervous. Looking forward, he wondered just _how_ big this tub was, and how dirty it must've been.

Sure enough, they stopped. Peeking around Lovino, Emil's eyes widened at the size of it.

It was _gigantic_.

Emil mused that it could easily fit him, his family, and possibly Lovino, Feliciano, Quan, and even Chun-Yan with all of her arms with ease. It was just that large. However, he wrinkled his nose upon smelling the vast amounts of body odour that it radiated. He also noticed that for some reason, there were vast amounts of straw and crumpled grass.

Before he could ask Lovino why such things were at a bath to begin with, the Italian groaned before rubbing his head. "Fucking bastards…" he seethed; curl becoming as crumpled as the many large piles of grass and straw surrounding them. "They don't even clean up this tub for months…"

 _Months_?

Emil now gazed around the room, starting to pale a bit. He heard snickering from behind him that came from the bath opposite them, but after taking a deep breath, he followed Lovino, who was already stepping forward.

"W-whoa!" sadly, he found himself tripping over when his foot landed on something that felt cold and… _slimy_. He had also dropped his bucket, and the cloth, sponges and towels from within it also tumbled out.

The snickering from behind evolved into full-blown laughter.

Raising his foot up, Emil cringed at seeing a murky green sticky substance. It was gross, but after taking another deep breath, the boy simply got back up, and began to help Lovino with cleaning.

Lovino had decided to leave the tub last as it would take the longest to complete compared to the room itself. As he heaved with his rake, Emil would grab as much grass, rubbish and straws as he could and run to get rid of them. It wasn't sure how long they took, but Emil felt that it must've been a very long time, as by the time they cleaned the room itself, there were already customers coming inside.

Still, he tended to lose track of time ever since he came into the spirit world.

Despite the room being absolutely spotless from its contents, Emil found that the smell was still quite foul. However he realized that it wasn't because of the straw, grass or rubbish that he and Lovino got rid of.

It was the tub itself.

Lovino had laid the rake opposite the wall, and close to the opening of the room. He grabbed the sponge, threw one in Emil's direction, and gestured to the boy to get in the tub.

When Emil peeked over, he almost found himself puking.

The inside of it contained mounds and mounds of disgusting substances. There was mould that was flitting around the corners, and what appeared to be many flecks and spots of dirt and slime. It was also very hardened throughout the insides, though Emil did _not_ want to know what the substance was before it grew hard. The smell was even worse now that he was certain on what its origin was.

Still, when Lovino climbed inside, with a gulp, Emil followed suit.

Luckily, the Italian spirit had brought two face masks.

"We only keep this bath tub for the _really_ filthy guests," Lovino had mentioned as he continued scrubbing. Noticing that Emil was desperately scraping with his own soapy sponge, the curl-haired spirit shook his head, "Ugh, it's pretty fucking disgusting…"

Seeing that the hardened substance just refused to get scraped off, Emil tried harder and harder to get it off, but it just wouldn't.

"The stench and sludge is so foul, it'd probably take weeks to fully get rid of…"

Emil's eyes widened a little upon hearing that, but he heaved a sigh as he shook his head. Trying harder to clean the tub the best that he could.

Suddenly, the same male spirit who had told Lovino that they were going to work on the big tub appeared yet again. He spoke up, "Lovino and Rune, you have some customers on the way."

Lovino bristled as it appeared that he finally snapped, "H-hey! Hey! Give us a fucking _minute_ at least! Chigi! That's it!" He furiously threw his sponge down as he snarled, "This is clearly harassment! You know what? Screw this shit – we're soaking it." He then turned to Emil, and crouched down to boost him out of the huge tub, "Go get an herbal sub-token from the foreman."

"W-what?" Emil spluttered out. But before he knew it, he was boosted out of the tub. Because he didn't expect it, he found himself tumbling over the edge with a yelp. He landed on his front, and gave a groan.

"An herbal sub-token," Lovino spoke up, poking his head out from where he was in the tub. "Go get it from the foreman."

Getting to his feet, Emil nodded, "Okay."

And with that, he ran off. Likewise, Lovino went back to being in the tub – deciding to try and at least attempt to soften the edge of the disgusting residue from within so that it could get soaked easily. However, it was rather hard task, as he felt like puking himself from all of the gathered increments in the tub. _'How that damn human is able to do this without complaining is beyond me,'_ he thought to himself as he continued scrubbing.

However, he was surprised when he could hear Emil's voice speak up, "Hey, Lovino?"

"What?" Lovino questioned, poking his head out from the tub again.

"What's a foreman?"

* * *

In his quiet, dimly lit room, Arthur was inspecting the contents of the pouch that he was carrying earlier. Inspecting the surface of it, he smiled at seeing the ruby in his fingers shine gloriously. On his table, there were more beautiful treasures that glowed, glittered and twinkled – more precious gems, some silver pieces, several golden coins, and a few pieces of jewellery.

However, after close inspection, his smile disappeared.

Eyes narrowing to the size of poison darts, he looked to the side. "Hmm…" he scowled before placing the ruby down. "Something's coming…I wonder what?" Quickly, he placed the precious items into the treasure box that was at his elbow.

The fairies were simply whispering, appearing to be frantic.

Once he closed the box, and catching sight of the fairies, he arched an eyebrow before leaving his comfy chair.

Reaching one of the windows, he carefully opened it – surveying the now darkened land as the rain became heavier and heavier. Examining the many buildings that were still lit up to show that they were in business, he this time fixed his emerald eyes onto the hills ahead.

"What useless git is even slinking around in the rain?" the English wizard muttered to himself before closing the window again.

However, had he chosen to look and observe a bit longer, he would've seen something peculiar occurring in the streets of the spirit world.

The lights of the many restaurants around suddenly turned off, as many of the spirits fled into a building. It didn't matter which one, they just fled into a building. Looking forward anxiously before they immediately turned off the light of their business.

Which was strange, considering that it was still opening hours.

However, there was something moving along in the rain on the now darkened streets. If one were to look carefully, they could see a large, hulking creature sauntering slowly.

It towered upon folds of dark grime and its body was heaving with sickening amounts of slime and goo oozing out from many folds of its being. It left behind a trail of sticky gunk as it continued on its way. Where its eyes were located, there were only two dark holes where one could just see more of the gross residue that the creature was made out of.

It simply looked forward and up at the building right ahead.

Then it continued on towards the bathhouse.

* * *

"I can't waste an herbal sub-token on you," the foreman said bluntly as he glared down at Emil. However, as soon as a spirit walked by with their hand raised, the foreman cleared his throat and handed him one of the wooden panels, "A mud-worth bath? Relax and enjoy."

After some direction and instructions from Lovino in more detail, Emil was able to find a spot near the opening of the bathhouse where the foreman was situated. The foreman turned out to be a male spirit who stood at a tall height with spiky blonde hair, pale green eyes, and a vertical scar that was situated at the right side of his forehead. Interestingly enough, he was wearing a long, blue and white striped scarf despite how hot and humid it was in the bathhouse.

There were a number of differently patterned and coloured tokens all in their own little segments right before him, and in easy reach.

"But…" Emil lightly frowned, however he shook his head to remind himself that he was definitely going to be treated badly compared to others in this place. He was still a human, and compared to the spirits, he was quite weak. What he could do was prove he could be eloquent and hard-working – perhaps if he endeavoured to be just continue being polite, then maybe he'll be able to get what Lovino had told him to get?

Looking up again, his frown was gone, and instead, he was able to keep his composure – if he dared tried and shouted, yelled, or snapped at the foreman, he knew that he'd be screwed for sure.

Not only that, but never mind trying to save his family.

So for that, he simply spoke up calmly, "But, I was told…that it has to be an herbal soak."

"Well, that's too bad," the foreman said, looking bored. "Hello, a dried worm-salt?" the foreman grabbed another token and handed it to a spirit couple who were passing by. "Enjoy your time together."

"For Ms Kristine," a male spirit ran up, looking quite eager.

"Ah, one sulphur soaker," the foreman nodded, looking quite interested himself.

Emil himself remembered the female spirit from the elevator and wondered how she was doing.

However, he was brought back to present when the foreman this time snapped, looking quite irritated. "I said scrub it yourself!" he glowered down at the human from his spot. "I already told you – I am _not_ giving you a token." When another customer walked by, though, he nodded and spoke more politely, "Here you go, relax and enjoy."

Emil bit his bottom lip, trying to think on how he could get the token without angering the foreman. Lovino needed that token, and it would help clean the bath for really dirty guests.

It was at that time though, that something caught Emil's eye.

Looking up, he suddenly saw something materializing a bit behind the foreman.

However, upon taking a closer look, the Icelandic boy was shocked to see that it was that spirit who he saw in the rain not too long ago. Looks like he really did choose to come inside after all.

The strange spirit no longer appeared to be drenched. Noticeably his mouth wasn't in view due to the lower part of his face being covered by his pale scarf. Right now, he had his eyes fixed on Emil.

Emil simply stared back, unsure on whether or not he should alert the foreman on the other spirit's presence.

On second thought, with the way the foreman was being so rude to him, the silver-haired youth decided that he really didn't need to know. Plus, he would probably get himself into trouble, too. Though then again – the strange spirit could just be a customer who got lost and didn't know how to enter the bathhouse.

Yes, that was probably it.

Emil was then surprised when he saw the strange spirit tilt his head slightly to the left before closing his eyes.

With the slight crinkling at the corners, the violet-eyed human realized that the spirit was smiling at him.

The foreman, noticing that Emil was still not budging from his spot, frowned, "Hm?" However, noticing that he seemed to be looking at something, he turned his head in direction to where the human was looking.

But when he looked over his shoulder, there was nothing.

To Emil though, the strange spirit simply disappeared – melting away.

When a loud ringing was heard, the spiky-haired foreman then took hold of the phone that was at his elbow. "Hello?" he asked gruffly. "Ahh…" he nodded looking quite relaxed. "Oh, yes-" however, his pale green hues widened upon seeing one of his tokens suddenly fly up in the air by itself. "What the-?!" he reached out to grab it, but it then flew right into Emil's direction.

Catching it with both hands with a surprised expression, Emil quickly bowed in respect, "Thank you very much!" before fleeing.

And it was good of him to turn tail, too. As the foreman was _not_ happy.

"Hey! Get back here!" the foreman shouted angrily as he got off the phone and placed his hand on the speaker so that the person on the other side of the line couldn't hear that he lost control. "Oi! Wait a _minute_!"

"What the bloody hell is going on over there, Lars?!" the person on the other side sadly could still hear.

"Nothing…" the foreman, Lars, heaved a sigh before shaking his head. "Everything's fine…"

From his room upstairs, Arthur was speaking through a skull. He has one hand on its head as he murmured, "We appear to have an intruder…"

"Is it a human?" Lars' voice spoke out through the skull's mouth, causing the skeleton piece to rattle as it chattered.

"I don't think so," Arthur rubbed at his chin, as he started to wonder himself. The atmosphere that it projected definitely didn't match, as humans were weak and had no ounce of power in their being.

What he was feeling was something that _did_ have power, but at the same time, something was blocking it. It seemed muted, and that made the bushy-browed blonde even more suspicious and on alert.

He wasn't sure what it was, but for now, he decided to observe more carefully.

For all he knew, it could be a threat to his business, or his precious little baby by being a rowdy or unruly spirit who loved to cause chaos.

* * *

 **[Characters]  
Lars - Netherlands**

 **Admittedly, I wasn't sure with who to use as No-Face, but in the end, I decided upon a role. =^^=**

 **Next chapter will be the end of this week, hopefully. ^^'**

 **Peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


	7. The Stink Spirit

**Hello again! Sorry for the update being a bit late, but well, uni is coming up soon, and I had to prepare for a few arrangements. ^^'**

 **Anyway, shall we move on?**

* * *

"Wow, Rune – this is a pretty good one."

Emil had returned with the sub-token that was thrown to him by that strange, scarf-wearing spirit from earlier. He ran quickly away just in case the foreman might've chosen to pursue him, considering he was angrily shouting in his direction.

Luckily, the foreman didn't choose to pursue him.

When he came back, Lovino still seemed quite irritated, but he seemed to brighten when he caught sight of the silver-haired human with the panel of wood in his hands. Emil saw that Lovino had seemed to given up on scrubbing the sludge-coated tub, so the Italian spirit was simply loitering around – sweeping the already spotless floor with a broom.

Lovino took the sub-token from Emil and knocked at a certain part of the wooden walls – where the tree was painted on. At once, a compartment opened showing a purple ribbon dangling down with a metal clip at the end.

Emil watched with great interest when Lovino clipped the sub-token onto the purple ribbon. "Watch carefully, henchman – just in case you gotta do this shit while I'm not here," the curl-headed spirit said. "Just clip the sub-token onto here, and then, you pull it." Lovino yanked the purple ribbon, which now had the sub-token attached to its end. Emil was still observing keenly when he saw it zoom upward.

Next, Lovino ushered Emil to the top edge of the tub. "The sub-token gets sent to Chun-Yan," explained Lovino as he pointed at another wooden panel suddenly make way as what appeared to be a pipe came down with a metallic groan. "She sends us the water, and…here!"

A rope dangled from the ceiling right in front of the both of them. Emil immediately gazed upward, wondering where it came from, and, judging from how frayed and slightly worn the rope was, wondering just how old the bathhouse truly was.

By that extension, how old were the spirits, and how long could they even live for?

The Icelandic boy assumed centuries at the very least.

"Go on, give it a yank," Lovino nodded in Emil's direction.

Eying the rope cautiously, Emil took it in both hands and gave it a strong tug. In fact, so strong, gave a surprised grunt as he slipped a bit and landed on his front down the outer side of the tub. Miraculously, he was still holding onto the rope.

However, a sudden stream of water sloshed out from the top end of the pipe and poured down into the tub. The water was radiating steam, and it appeared to be a bit of a murky mixture of green and blue with some white foam frothing at the edges.

Lovino sighed as he rolled his eyes, "Geez, you're such a clumsy bastard…"

While getting up, Emil saw why the water appeared murky – there seemed to be pieces of something in its surface. He wrinkled his nose as he caught a strong scent – it was rather putrid, but it wasn't horrible to the point he'd want to puke. He wrinkled his nose, "Lovino, what's in this water?"

"Dried worm salts," replied Lovino. "It's supposed to be good for you." Seeing the incredulous expression on Emil's face, the Italian snorted," No complaining – besides, with water this murky, you can't at all see the sludge!"

He recalled his first time in the boiler room when he saw Chun-Yan reach for things in the cabinets at the back. Dried worm salts, mud worth bath, sulphur soaker…the spirits seemed to love dousing themselves in strange substances, at the very least. What other combinations there would be, and what Chun-Yan stored in her cabinets of ingredients, Emil began to ponder – he did recall that there seemed to be hundreds of cabinets since they made up the back wall as well as the wall on her right side as she worked.

Getting down carefully from the side of the tub, Lovino looked over his shoulder, "Yank the rope again when the tub's full. The water should stop." He arched an eyebrow, "You do know you could let go of the rope, right? I'll go get some breakfast. Mind the batch, henchman!"

"Okay!" Emil called in response as he watched his fellow employee leave. Looking at the rope again, he slowly let go, and carefully sat at the edge of the tub. He made sure to watch closely as it quickly began to fill up with water. At the very least, Lovino was right: the water really did do a good job concealing the sludge – Emil couldn't really make out the dried condiments caking at the inside.

Admittedly, he was nervous being left alone to look after the bath. What if a customer came in? Though Lovino simply told him to just tell the person to get lost (unless it was a female) as the bath wasn't ready yet, there was the sole fact that he was a human. Emil knew that if he told a spirit _"no"_ or to _"wait"_ – they definitely wouldn't listen to him.

Or worse.

Shaking his head, Emil glared at the tub as the water filled in some more. It was a simple task, he should be paying attention.

However, he noticed something at the side.

Or, rather, _someone_.

At the side of the tub, there stood that same, strange, scarf-wearing spirit who helped him earlier. The tall spirit was simply gazing with curious plum-coloured eyes at him.

Emil blinked, starting to feel very cautious at the extra presence in the room that wasn't Lovino. He had seen the other spirit disappear and go invisible before – that was how he gained his sub-token after all, so he felt the need to be extra guarded by the other's demeanour.

Was this spirit following him?

The human boy wasn't sure, but he knew that he shouldn't act rash. So, instead, with a deep breath, he spoke, "I'm sorry, sir, but the bath isn't ready yet."

However, the spirit didn't speak back.

Instead, he came forward towards the pale-haired youth's direction.

Likewise, this caused Emil to carefully stand up and move down the tub's side so that he wouldn't trip over again. He made sure to keep a safe distance away from the stranger.

The scarf-wearing spirit suddenly offered his huge hands out. In his huge hands, there appeared to be all the tokens that the foreman was keeping earlier at his stand.

Emil's violet eyes widened, "Wow, that's a lot…"

The scarf-wearing spirit gave a grunt as he raised his hands up – he seemed to be offering all of them to him.

"What?" Emil looked up at blinked at the spirit. However, he shook his head, "No, thank you. I don't need anymore."

The spirit's eyes widened a fraction. Again, he raised his arms up in Emil's direction with another grunt. This time, it sounded more insistent.

"No, I don't want anymore," Emil shook his head, making his voice a little firm, yet also quite calm. "But, thank you, anyway." The human wondered if the strange spirit had stolen all of them from the foreman, and if he did, just how many did he steal? He sincerely hoped that the foreman didn't notice, and the strange spirit who helped him wouldn't get into any trouble.

"Ah…?" the scarf-wearing spirit was blinking – eyes stretched extra wide. However, giving a little murmur under its breath, he melted away into the air.

A clatter resounded throughout the room as all of the sub-tokens landed onto the wooden floor into a cluttered mess.

"Ah…" Emil had backed away from the tokens that were now at his feet. Hearing a loud slosh, he whipped his head around and gave a yelp, "Ack!"

The tub was already full of water, so the extra contents was overflowing onto the floor.

* * *

Arthur was running at top speed with his footsteps making pattering sounds on the wooden floorboards. He was going past all of his workers who were surprised, worried and astonished at his presence among them. Usually, he just stayed at the top floor doing his own business. With him down here, it must be serious.

"Ah, Arthur!" one of the spirits, a female with a cat-like mouth and wearing a green headband, gave a squeak at his presence. She was wearing red robes and sandals.

"Yes, yes, Emma, I know," Arthur stopped running as he declared, "It's a stink spirit!"

Emma, the female spirit nodded sadly, "And apparently it's an extra smelly one…"

Another spirit ran towards the both of them. He looked panicked as he cried, "It's heading straight for the bridge!"

Outside, many of the male spirits were trying their hardest to stop the stink spirit from entering their bathhouse. It was a hulking mass of sludge, grime and other disgusting substances as it slowly came towards them and the building. From its very body, it was radiating nauseous fumes that would make one either want to vomit or faint from just how awful it was.

"Go away!"

"We're closed!"

"Don't come any closer!"

"Just go home!"

However, even the spirits from the bathhouse were knocked back by the ferocious fumes of the stink spirit, who simply continued to plough through. One of the spirits even fainted from the stench.

Arthur narrowed his emerald eyes, "Hmm…still, there is something that strikes me as odd. That there is something about this one that doesn't match on how a stink spirit is." Heaving a sigh, he shook his head, "Either way, we have no choice. Just give it a bath, and get it out of her as fast as you can."

Upon the order, everyone was running back and forth in a panic. A lot of the workers were ushering customers out from their baths, quickly robing them, and prompting them to go into their rooms or in the lobby. Some were continuing to remove things out of the way like pots, vases and buckets.

Throughout the whole thing, Emil poked his head from the room of the big tub. He looked around, hearing the hullaballoo, and was astonished at seeing how frantic the spirits were being. He was about to ask what was going on, when a female spirit with a cat-like smile, and a green ribbon headband approached him, looking extremely worried.

Still, she ushered him towards her, "Rune, Arthur wants to see you!"

Hearing that, Emil instantly straightened his posture and followed the female spirit without hesitation. He was wondering what was going on, and why everyone was panicking, yet at the same time, he felt a bit afraid.

That bushy-browed wizard truly scared him.

"Rune, do _not_ mess this up!" Arthur said sternly, waggling a finger in his direction. The female spirit, Emma, led Emil to the entrance of the bathhouse where Arthur was waiting. The human boy was quite surprised at detecting the traces of nervousness in the blonde wizard's demeanour. "Take this guest to the big tub and treat them!"

"But…" Emil licked his lip; remembering that the tub still had sludge in it. He wasn't sure if bathing in the big tub would help at all. "But, I…"

"No buts, or I'm turning you into a piece of coal!" Arthur snapped, his finger now stabbing right between Emil's eyes. This prompted the silver-haired human to gaze at the finger cross-eyed. "You hear me, you little git?!"

"Ack!" Emma gawped. "It's here…!"

Emil saw that some spirits were running in, covering their noses with their arms and crying. However, when he saw something large and covered with the substances that was on the insides of the large tub, he couldn't blame them at all.

But the tub's smell, compared to this, was a perfume of fruity fragrances.

Immediately, the stench overwhelmed the room.

A lot of the other spirits gave shrieks and squeals as they fled. Arthur and Emil were the only ones remaining. Emil felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as the disgusting fumes blasted into his nostrils. His amethyst orbs widened as his whole figure grew rigid. Arthur also looked to have his eyes water as his whole being became tense, too. Emil instantly clutched at his nose with both hands.

"Hands down…" Arthur growled under his breath in Emil's direction. "You'll insult our guest!"

When the stink spirit finally entered the building, Emil felt close to fainting when the great creature was towering down at the two. It was growling a little as slime and sludge oozed from the very parts of its body and dripped onto the floor, creating a huge mess.

"L-Look, a valued customer!" Arthur spluttered out, beginning to gag. "Welcome to our baths…!"

The stink spirit gave a groan as it stretched out one of its slime-covered arms only an inch away from Arthur's face.

The blonde wizard gagged as he regained his voice, "A-ah, ack, oh…it's money." He then tilted his head a fraction in Emil's direction, "Rune, take the nice customer's money…!"

"Y-yes, sir…" Emil was able to stammer out as he plodded forward with his hands slowly raised up.

The stink spirit moved its arm in Emil's direction instead. There was a loud plop as flashes of gold were seen through a large splatter of slime. Emil felt plenty of unpleasant shivers crawling down his spine as he gulped.

He really just wanted this day to be over, and soon.

"Don't make our guest wait!" Arthur called urgently. "Take our lovely guest to their bath."

"T-this way…" Emil was able to choke out as he slowly started to lead the stink spirit towards the room with the big tub.

Despite the big tub not being such a long way away, Emil felt that it was a huge journey as he walked slow, simple steps. He honestly did want to go faster just to escape the overwhelming and disgusting stench emanating from the stink spirit, however his body became sluggish and very hard to move just from the sheer force of the smell. Plus, it would be very rude to do that to the stink spirit. Even if its scent made him want to puke and twitch onto the floor before blacking out, the stink spirit did pay, and it only just wanted a bath. Emil was sure that the stench wasn't its fault – perhaps, it was just born that way.

His thoughts were able to distract him momentarily as he wondered how spirits were even born in the first place.

Meanwhile, Lovino was walking down a hall with two bowls of pasta that had diced tomatoes in it. However, seeing everyone flinching back and watching with bated breath, he looked forward.

He grimaced and visibly gagged at seeing the stink spirit slither slowly by.

But his amber eyes widened when he saw that mop of pale hair leading it towards the big tub.

"What the-?! Rune!" Lovino shouted. He was alarmed at seeing his henchman with the creature. He grimaced before noticing that the pasta seemed to inwardly curl and the tomatoes became mouldy. "What the fuck…?! Our food!"

"Open the windows! All of them!" Arthur's voice boomed throughout the room as he ran to the upper level of the bathhouse. Everyone immediately complied to try and lessen the stench's effect.

Either way, Emil led the stink spirit into the room at long last. The pale-haired boy panted in relief as he instantly moved out of the way of the creature as it sauntered towards the large tub. After gripping at the edge of the tub with its slimy hands, it then heaved itself right into the bath.

However, the water quickly turned into sludge as well before it overflowed from the tub.

Emil quickly grabbed the bucket, which he stored all the bath tokens that had been left to him earlier, and heaved it up. He lost his footing slightly from the force of the now slime-ridden water, and so landed into it. Feeling all of the hairs on his skin crawl from both the stench and feeling the now immensely dirtied water in places it should not be felt at, Emil tried to stand up.

The stink spirit's head emerged from the tub. Slowly it raised its arms and gave a grim groan, looking highly disappointed. It then turned in Emil's direction, and gave another gigantic groan.

"Wha…?" Emil blinked, but looked down at the bucket of bath tokens he had. "Just a minute." He was about to call the spirit _"sir"_ , but quickly stopped himself – unsure if it was male or not.

For all he knew, it could've actually been female.

"Hehehe," Arthur snickered from above his spot. He smirked as he saw the human boy struggle in his spot and covered with the slime. "Disgusting."

"I don't think that's really funny…" Emma said quietly, looking between her boss and the human.

"Let's see what he'll do next," said Arthur as he smiled wickedly – enjoying Emil's struggling.

As Emil trudged through the thick sludge and grime to get to the panel that Lovino used to clip the token. It proved to be a difficult task as the sludge water was quite thick. Also carrying the bucket filled with all the tokens at the same time didn't help him, either.

"Looks like he wants to make a bath," Arthur noted, arching a bushy eyebrow.

"Oh, dear…" Emma said in worry. "He's going to waste all our good water."

Regardless, he was finally able to reach the panel. Looking at the painted tree, he knocked at it a few times. Sadly, it didn't open. He next tried to pull at its edge, giving a little growl. When it didn't open again, Emil began slamming his fist a few times at the panel, when _finally_ it opened – bumping his head.

Emil gave a yelp and rubbed his head with his wrist as there wasn't much of the foul-smelling grime on it. He was sweating a lot, though he wasn't sure if it was because of the temperature of the room, or because he was tired from heaving himself around past the slime.

Either way, the stench somehow, miraculously, wasn't as horrible as it was before. Still horrible, but not downright wretched like before. Though Emil was attributing that from being simply exposed and used to it a lot.

When the wooden panel was open, he took one of the bath tokens and tried to fasten it onto the end of the ribbon, however it slipped from its grip due to his hands being covered with the gross grime. It landed onto the inside of the panel, but that didn't deter Emil one bit. He grabbed another one of the tokens instead, and fastened it with the clip.

"Hmm…" Arthur squinted his emerald orbs as he caught sight of the wooden bucket with the human boy. "Who gave him all the bath tokens?"

"Don't look at me," Emma shook her head. "I didn't give it to him."

When he pulled the ribbon, it zoomed up and disappeared to Chun-Yan. Seeing the stink spirit give another rumbling groan, Emil saw the pipe emerge down from the side, and the rope dangle from the ceiling. He heaved his body again as he grabbed the ends of his baggy shorts and lifted them up slightly as a means of helping him get towards his destination. It proved to be easier as the cloth wasn't stuck to any of the slime or grime.

Climbing up to the side of the tub was like climbing a mountain. When he lifted his head, he found himself gazing into the big, soulless eyes of the stink spirit as it gave a loud groan, though the corners of its mouth seemed to be up – appearing as if to smile.

Sadly, Emil got a good whiff of the creature's foul breath.

Emil was close to really puking, however he swallowed down his lunch, gave a tired moan, and lifted his body up with help from going on all-fours first. Reaching up, his fingers brushed against the rope. Remembering that a sharp pull caused him to trip over, Emil gave it a simple tug.

But even then, that seemed a bit too strong.

With a surprised yelp, Emil fell off the edge of the tub, right inside where the stink spirit was with a little _'plop'_ as the huge stream of bathwater suddenly sloshed down the pipe and crash right onto the guest.

"Oh no!" Emma cried, when she saw the water totally mask the guest and overflow the tub. "That's our best herbal formula!"

Emil found himself stuck right into the sludge as he struggled – trying to free himself from where he was. The stench was nauseating considering the slime was added with water.

That was when something wrapped around his body, and lift him out of the sludge water.

Feeling rather dazed, Emil's violet eyes fluttered as his head spun for a bit. He could feel his head being brushed with the warm bathwater that was still being poured from the pipe.

Something caught his eye.

Despite the water still filled with whatever strange ingredient Chun-Yan had placed, Emil could make out a strange shape.

Snapping out of his daze, Emil reached his arm inside and started to feel around as the water continued to crash down.

With his fingers brushing against something so hard and metallic, the human's eyes widened.

"Oi, Rune!"

Emil craned his head around to see Lovino with a white bandana wrapped around the bottom half of his face, the ends of his own baggy shorts rolled up, and he was carrying what seemed to be a brook and a stick. "Lovino?" Emil exclaimed in surprise.

"That bastard's not gonna hurt you on my watch!" Lovino raised up his broom. "I'm not gonna let that thing hurt my henchman!"

"No, wait!" Emil called in alarm. "I think the customer needs help! It feels like there's some kind of thorn on its side!"

"A thorn?!" Lovino asked incredulously.

Emil brought his other arm inside as he tried to tug onto the strange object that was still protruding from the stink spirit's side. "It won't come out!" he cried.

"What's that?" Arthur's forest green eyes widened. "The customer has a thorn?" Rubbing his chin, he then hissed in Emma's direction, "Get all the staff down there while you can." Hoisting himself over the railing, he jumped off, and flew from the upper level. Immediately, he landed onto the top railing of what separated the bath rooms.

Emil and Lovino instantly looked in alarm at the blonde wizard who suddenly came down.

"Listen to me!" Arthur called, looking serious. "That is no stink spirit we have on our hands!" Waving his hands around, a rope materialized out of thin air after a spark of green glittered, "Grab onto this rope!" the rope immediately zoomed right into Emil's direction.

"Right!" Emil instantly grabbed hold of the end of it. He tried to wrap it around the thorn, but found it wouldn't stay on.

That was, until a second pair of hands immediately tied a knot and wrapped the rope around it.

"Got it tied!" Lovino shouted from his spot beside Emil.

Arthur raised his hands as more of the spirits suddenly came down to help the two of them. They grabbed onto the rope as the blonde wizard shouted, "Everyone, ready on my command! And… _heave_! And… _heave_!"

Straight away, everyone pulled with all their might onto the rope, in the direction away from the creature in order to help it. Though there were a lot of spirits helping, the customers and some other workers gave moral support by eagerly cheering and calling. They clapped, made strong sweeping motions akin to that of pulling the rope, and gave loud words of encouragement to continue pulling.

At the very start, Emil licked his lips as he continued to heave as hard as he could. Lovino was right behind him, and was seething – visibly gritting his teeth.

They were budging, but noticeably, it was very slow. Still, even when his muscles were starting to tire, and he was breaking it out into more drops of sweat, Emil was determined – he definitely didn't want to give up as he could see that the spirit in the bath seemed to be in some kind of pain. He wanted to help the spirit.

After continuing to pull and heave, Emil saw progress – something was emerging from the water.

Despite how frayed and rusted, the shape of it was undeniable.

"A bicycle?" Emil was shocked.

"Thought so…" Arthur raised a bushy eyebrow.

No wonder the poor customer wanted it removed. Emil came forward to this time pull on the handlebars of the bicycle, to help relieve the load faster.

It proved highly effective.

Suddenly, an onslaught of objects shot and tumbled out from the water as vast amounts of rubbish and old, useless items were blasting in immense piles. Everyone immediately backed away when many kinds of items fell at their feet – old household appliances like a kettle, a fridge, many soggy magazines, newspapers, even a few tyre wheels and what appeared to be vast amounts of plastic bags were among the cluttered, and disgusting mess of man-made objects.

Emil then spotted something still dangling from the water. Running forward, he pulled on it with all his might – revealing it to be an old, used-up fishing line.

" _ **Ah…"**_

Straight away, there was a sizzling hiss as the huge, lumbering shape of the customer calmly settled down to the level of the large tub. A soft sigh of relief echoed throughout the suddenly silent building.

But a huge wave of the bathwater formed into what appeared to be a large hand with long, delicate fingers. It suddenly washed forward and grabbed Emil.

Emil gave a shocked cry as he found himself completely submerged in the watered hand.

Great waves seemed to form from the tub as it tumbled out and crashed onto all of the man-made objects – as if to blast it away from the tub and the being to whom it made miserable.

Lovino shouted from his spot, but was held back by Feliciano, "Rune! Oi, Rune! Where the hell are you?!"

Immobilized by his watery case, Emil blinked as he could see clearly through the water. Interestingly enough, the water that had taken hold of him was far clearer, cleaner and even purer than the bathwater. Also, he found that he could still breathe, despite being completely covered and submerged.

His eyes widened when he saw something emerge from the tub.

Or rather, _someone_.

Steam seemed to billow and flow along the room as a figure emerged from the tub. A clearly male figure with dark hair and a peaceful expression on his face. He was wearing what appeared to be billowing robes that seemed to waver along with the water that encased the human. There was also a red mark that was on his forehead. Upon closer inspection, though, it appeared to be a jewel of some kind. Opening his eyes, that were once so soulless from the previous state as the stink spirit, the male spirit's eyes were a glittering ochre as a pearly white smile spread out onto his face.

" _ **Well done…"**_

His voice was soft-spoken, yet at the same time, there seemed to be an overwhelming intense amount of power and authority in his tone.

As soon as he finished his sentence, he submerged back into the huge tub.

The water that held Emil quietly settled down, releasing the Icelandic boy. Emil was completely drenched, however feeling something suddenly seem to drop in his hands, he blinked and looked down.

There was little green ball that was in his hands. It had a smooth surface, yet when squeezed at, it was a bit hard. It also emanated a peaceful aroma that smelt fresh and relaxing.

Everyone else meanwhile, including Arthur, remained silent from the whole affair. Still in disbelief but also in awe at the turn of events. The blonde wizard looked down, when he noticed a little twinkle catch his eye in the clean water that was once sludge.

Flecks of the little amounts of foam in the water began to form into little shapes as they gained a golden colour and begin to shine.

Someone was able to make out what was forming in the water very early.

"Gold!"

Straight away, the spirits suddenly reached down for it as they clambered over each other to reach for the pieces of gold that were now fully formed from within the clean water.

"Hey, that's private property!" Emma shrieked from her spot as she was being shoved over and pushed around by many of her fellow employees to get the gold. "Quit it!"

"Back off!" Arthur snarled from his spot at his employee's behaviour and conduct. "Our guest is still here, you idiots!"

The water in the tub suddenly started to bubble as if it was being boiled at a high level. The bubbles only grew bigger an in many more amounts.

"Rune, you're in our guest's way," Arthur said curtly.

"Yes, sir," Emil dipped his head in respect to the customer before stepping to the side.

"Open the main gates!" Arthur called.

All of a sudden, with a great whoosh, waves of the bath water suddenly shot out from the tube in what appeared to be a sort of geyser.

However, the water suddenly formed into a long, elongated body as Emil spotted the customer emerge. The customer let out a hearty laugh that echoed around the entire bathhouse as his appearance changed – his face grew into what appeared to be a crocodile – his skin forming into scales as the lower half of his body became formed into what appeared to be a fish as the legs melted into fins.

His tawny eyes continued to glitter with a suddenly new resolve as he flew away with the waves of water forming as an ongoing river. Flying in a few loop-the-loops, the customer left – his body curving a few times as he swam into the refreshing rain of the night.

Once he had left in an ecstatic state, the bathhouse erupted into cheers and calls of joy at the success of helping the spirit, and the good fortune that the bathhouse now gained with the reward of the gold.

Before Emil knew it, Arthur suddenly hugged him in joy, looking uncharacteristically ecstatic, "Rune, you did well! Jolly well! We made so much money!" Releasing him from his grip, Arthur continued, "That spirit was rich and powerful. Everyone learn from Rune! Drinks are on the house tonight!"

All of the workers of the bathhouse cheered in delight.

"But, first hand over all of the gold you picked up," finished Arthur.

The workers gasped and immediately started to protest – now enraged and feeling quite robbed. They were shouting and calling angrily as they cried in Arthur's direction.

Throughout all of that, nobody noticed a single, lone figure who was standing at the back of the room and away from the crowd.

But as soon as they appeared to watch and observe quietly from their spot, they disappeared immediately.

* * *

 **And so ends the chapter.**

 **The next part will be in...honestly I'm not sure, but hopefully it won't be too long or too delayed. It's just that things will be a bit busy now that second semester has come up. ^^'**

 **I think we've reached halfway of the story by now. OwO**

 **Anyway, peace out!  
\- Hebi-Kazechi-10**


End file.
